THE 


PIONEERS,  PREACHERS  AND  PEOPLE 


MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 


THE 


PIONEERS,  PREACHERS  AND  PEOPLE 


MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY. 


WILLIAM  HENRY  MILBURN, 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  RIFLE,  AXE  AND  SADDLE-BAGS,"  AND  u  TEN  TEARS  OF  PREACHER  LIFE.1 


NEW   YORK: 
DERBY    &    JACKSON. 

1860. 


ENTERED  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1860,  by 

WILLIAM     HEXRY    MILBURN, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States,  for  the  Southern 
District  of  New  York. 


W.  H.  TINSON.  Stereotyper.  G«o.  RUSS«LL  &  Co.,  Printen. 


THIS    BOOK 

IS  DEDICATED  TO 

EJL.ETCHER     HARPER,     ESQ., 

WHO  HAS  BEEN 

A  TRUE  FRIEND   TO   B1E  AND   MINE 
FOB    MANY     YEARS. 


PREFACE. 


IT  is  now  nearly  two  and  twenty  years  since  my 
father  pitched  his  tent  in  Prairie-land.  I  was  then 
a  lad.  The  broad  savannas,  clad  with  flowers ; 
the  emerald  groves,  that  seemed  like  islands  of  the 
deep  ;  the  Father  of  Waters ;  the  Mother  of  Floods ; 
the  Beautiful  River;  the  fierce,  ostrich-like  Piasau, 
whose  outline  on  the  bluffs  of  the  Mississippi  above 
Alton  commemorates  the  Indian's  dread  of  the  terri 
ble  being :  these  soon  took  a  strong  hold  of  my 
imagination.  From  that  day  to  this,  the  West  has 
been  to  me  a  land  half  of  dream  and  half  of 
reality.  To  read  and  hear  everything  connected 
with  its  history  became  a  passion. 

I  have  sought  in  this  book  to  set  in  order  the 
results  of  this  reading  and  hearing.  It  would  be 
almost  impossible  for  me  to  say  what  parts  came  to 
me  from  tradition  and  what  from  the  written  page. 


vii 


Vlll  PREFACE. 


Only  I  must  be  allowed  to  mention  two  books 
which  have  been  particularly  serviceable.  The  one 
is  the  work  of  my  friend,  Francis  G.  Parkman,  Esq., 
the  "  History  of  the  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,"  one  of 
the  most  picturesque  and  vivid  books  of  history 
that  has  ever  fallen  in  my  way ;  the  second  is  the 
work  of  another  of  my  friends,  Albert  J.  Pickett, 
Esq.,  the  "  History  of  Alabama,"  naive  as  it  is 
entertaining. 

I  have  sought  to  follow  the  pilgrimage  of  the 
plumed  cavaliers  of  De  Soto  in  their  quest  of  the 
Great  River,  and  the  gold  which  they  fondly  hoped 
was  to  be  found  upon  its  banks;  I  have  floated 
with  Marquette  in  his  bark  canoe  as  he  went  upon 
his  gentle  embassy  to  the  Indians;  I  have  wan 
dered  with  La  Salle  as  he  vainly  strove  to  found 
a  French  Empire  in  the  West,  and  mourned  by  the 
Texan  grave  of  one  of  the  most  unfortunate  but 
heroic  of  men;  I  have  sat  down  with  the  kindly 
French  in  their  Paradise  of  Kaskaskia,  and  enjoyed 
the  spell  of  their  idyllic  life ;  I  have  trudged  with  our 
own  pioneers,  as  with  stout  hearts  they  crossed  the 
Cumberland  Gap  and  entered  the  Dark  and  Bloody 
Ground;  I  have  stood  with  them  at  their  guns 
in  their  blockhouses,  have  slept  on  their  raw-hide 


PEEFACE.  IX 

beds,  and  shared  their  jerked  meat  and  "  dodger ;" 
and  I  have  sought  to  appreciate  the  development  of 
Saxon  sense  under  the  tuition  of  the  wilderness, 
and  to  trace  the  schooling  of  the  mind  under  the 
auspices  of  social  life,  in  application  to  the  needs 
of  self-government.  I  have  travelled  the  circuit 
with  the  first  preachers,  sat  in  the  congregation 
as  they  expounded  the  doctrines  of  eternal  life,  and 
welcomed  them  for  their  works'  sake ;  and  last,  I 
have  summed  up  in  a  few  words  what  has  been 
done,  since  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana  in  1803,  in 
the  way  of  exploration  and  development,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Great  River. 

To  me  it  has  been  a  pleasant  labor ;  I  hope  that 
the  reading  will  be  as  pleasant. 

BROOKLYN,  February,  1860. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  I. 

PAGE 

De  Soto,  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         ..13 

LECTURE  II. 
Marquette  and  La  Salle, 67 

LECTURE  III. 
The  French  in  Illinois, 127 

LECTURE  IV. 

The  Red  Men  and  the  War  of  Pontiac,        .         .         .163 

LECTURE  V. 

The  Cabin  Homes  of  the  Wilderness,  at  the  beginning 

of  the  Revolution,       .         .         .         .          •          .203 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

LECTURE  VI. 

PAGE 

The  Cabin  Homes  of  the  Wilderness  during  the  Ame 
rican  Revolution,         .          .          .         .          .          .251 

LECTURE  VII. 

Sketches  of  Character  and  Adventure  in  the  West,  to 

the  Failure  of  Burr's  Expedition,  1 806,  .          .      303 

LECTURE  VIII. 

Manna  in  the  Wilderness ;    or,   the  old  Preachers   and 

their  Preaching,  .          .          .          .          .          -345 

LECTURE  IX. 

Western  Mind ;  its  Manifestations,  Eloquence  and  Humor,     3  89 

LECTURE  X. 

The  Great  Valley  ;    its  Past,  its  Present,  and  its  Future,     429 


Lecture  I. 
E     S  O  T  O 


DE   SOTO. 

THE  contrast  is  most  striking  between  the  Span 
iard  of  to-day,  and  the  Spaniard  of  three  hundred 
years  ago.  Now,  he  is  indolent,  often  apathetic, 
grave,  reserved,  and  whatever  his  inward  capacity 
of  passion  or  of  exertion,  an  inefficient  and  idle  man. 
But  in  those  old  days,  the  Spanish  race  was  filled 
and  inspired  with  a  wild  and  tireless  fourfold  energy 
of  avarice,  religion,  ambition  and  adventure,  which 
swept  them  round  and  round  the  world  in  a  long 
resistless  bloody  storm  of  conquest,  conversion  and 
slaughter,  gained  them  their  vast  colonial  realms  and 
wealth,  and  brought  to  pass  a  panorama  of  achieve 
ments,  miseries,  cruelties  and  crimes  whose  very 
representations,  in  the  antique  wood-cuts  of  De  Bry, 
are  horrible  to  look  upon.  Governor  Galvano 
quaintly  says,  speaking  of  the  craze  which  fell  upon 
Spain  in  consequence  of  the  early  American  dis 
coveries,  that  they  "  were  ready  to  leap  into  the  sea 
to  swim,  if  it  had  been  possible,  into  those  new-found 
parts." 

There  is  no  stronger  or  stranger  exemplification  of 
the  steady  obstinacy  with  which  this  insane  chase 

15 


16  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES    AND   PEOPLE 

after  riches  and  glory  was  pursued  than  the  long 
chapter  of  disastrous  Spanish  inroads  upon  the  terri 
tory  of  the  southern  half  of  the  United  States,  then 
called  Florida,  which  took  place  between  1512  and 
the  foundation  of  St.  Augustine  in  1565. 

The  earliest  European  name  associated  with  the 
southern  coast  of  the  United  States  is  that  of  Juan 
Ponce  de  Leon,  a  brave  old  warrior,  whose  early 
manhood  had  been  passed  in  hunting  the  Moors 
from  Granada  and  in  acquiring  that  inflexibility  of 
purpose  and  hardiness  of  character,  which  enabled 
him  to  play  his  distinguished  part  as  a  conqueror  in 
the  "New  World.  Sailing  with  Columbus  on  his 
second  voyage,  spending  most  of  his  remaining  life  in 
the  "West  Indies,  subjugating  Porto  Rico,  where  he 
ruled  with  an  iron  sway  as  governor,  superseded  in 
his  command,  thirsting  ever  for  gold  and  glory,  and 
yearning  for  a  renewed  life  in  which  to  enjoy  the 
fruits  of  his  valor,  he  turned  his  prow  to  the  north 
ward,  in  search  of  the  land  where  the  crystal  waters 
of  the  fountain  of  youth  washed  those  yellow  sands 
of  price,  the  discovery  and  possession  of  which  would 
give  the  happy  voyager  the  realization  of  the  twin 
dream  of  Alchemy — gold  and  immortality.  Fables 
were  the  faith  of  the  time.  Why  not  ?  Could  cre 
dulity  cherish  a  wilder  phantasy  than  the  Genoese 
mariner's  ?  Yet  this  had  been  fulfilled.  Might  not 
De  Leon's,  too  ?  So  the  stout  old  cavalier  took  his 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  17 

way  to  the  north.  Aged  Indians  had  told  him  that 
in  that  direction  lay  the  objects  of  his  search.  His 
many  fights  had  left  him  full  of  wounds  and  scars  ; 
age  was  bending  his  manly  form,  weakness  was 
creeping  on  apace.  No  matter,  for  the  Fountain 
shall  give  him  immortal  youth,  and  with  it,  health 
and  beauty. 

Land  was  made  Palm  Sunday — Pascua  Florida — 
1512,  near  St.  Augustine.  Beautiful  enough  for  the 
shore  of  the  Immortals  was  this  which  now  rose 
before  his  eyes,  covered  with  rich  greensward,  dap 
pled  with  flowers  of  unnumbered  dyes,  over 
shadowed  by  giant  trees  clad  with  summer  leaves, 
glorious  with  a  rainbow  garniture  of  tropic  blossoms, 
over  which  hung  long  pendulous  veils  as  if  of  silver 
tissue — spectral  veils  like  Mokanna's,  hiding  the 
hideous  face  of  the  swamp  miasma — veils  which  a 
sad  experience  has  taught  men  now  to  call  the  "  Cur 
tains  of  Death."  Softly  came  the  land  breeze 
freighted  with  the  breath  of  flowers,  upon  that  tri 
umphal  Sabbath  morning,  and  it  came — so  thought 
the  Spaniard — straight  from  that  fabled  spring,  and 
with  the  fever  of  excitement  in  his  veins,  and  the 
throb  of  rapture  at  his  heart,  "  Florida,"  he  cried,  "  is 
it  not  the  land  of  flowers !"  In  honor  of  the  festival, 
and  in  honor  of  the  blossom-clad  coast,  he  named  a 
name  which  it  bears  to  this  day. 

But  alas  for  the  hopes  of  Ponce  de  Leon  !     It  was 


18  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

no  morning  land  of  immortality  to  him,  save  as  the 
name  he  bestowed  preserves  for  us  and  after-times 
the  dim  shadow  of  his  antique  renown.  Upon  his 
second  voyage,  a  poisonous  arrow  from  an  Indian's 
bow  brought  him  his  message  of  doom.  Hastening 
to  Cuba,  he  breathed  his  last,  leaving  his  Flower- 
land  a  fatal  legacy  to  Spain  for  many  a  sad  year  to 
come. 

In  those  old  days  of  Spanish  rule,  there  was  but 
one  step  from  the  Quixotic  to  the  Satanic,  and  that 
step  was  taken  by  Yasquez  De  Ayllon,  the  next 
adventurer  whose  keels  furrowed  the  waves  of  our 
coast.  This  monster  came  for  slaves  to  work  the 
mines  of  the  West  Indies,  where  the  atrocities  of  the 
Spaniards  had  in  less  than  thirty  years  well-nigh 
exterminated  a  numerous  and  happy  people. 

Beaching  the  coast  of  South  Carolina,  De  Ayllon 
entered  a  river,  called,  in  honor  of  the  captain  who 
discovered  it,  the  Jordan ;  known  to  us  by  its  Indian 
name,  the  Cumbahee.  Landing  on  a  pleasant  shore, 
which  the  natives  called  Chicora — Mocking-bird — 
they  were  hospitably  welcomed  and  entertained. 
But  the  Christian  white  man's  return  for  the  red 
heathen's  courtesy  was  betrayal,  outrage,  and  death. 
Having  laid  in  his  supplies,  De  Ayllon  invited  the 
Indians  aboard  his  vessels;  an  invitation  gladly 
accepted  by  the  unsuspecting  red  men.  While 
crowds  of  them  were  below,  the  hatches  were  closed, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  19 

all  sail  made,  and  away  over  the  blue  waters  sped 
the  winged  monsters  with  their  prey.  But  did  not 
that  wild,  despairing  cry  from  ship  and  shore,  of 
husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children,  thus  ruth 
lessly  torn  from  each  other,  reach  the  ear  of  God  ? 
He  heard  and  he  avenged.  One  of  the  ships  foun 
dered,  and  all  on  board  perished.  The  remaining 
Indians  refused  food,  and  thus  died.  The  aborigines 
of  this  country  could  not  be  reduced  to  slavery. 

Again  De  Ay  lion  came  with  three  vessels  and  many 
men  to  conquer  Chicora.  The  natives  masked  their 
purpose  of  revenge,  received  him  kindly,  lulled  his 
suspicions  into  fatal  security,  and  he  dreamed  the 
goodly  land  already  his  own.  They  made  a  great 
feast  for  their  guests  some  leagues  in  the  interior. 
Two  hundred  of  De  Ay  lion's  men  attended — he  with 
a  small  party  remaining  to  guard  the  ships.  Three 
days  the  banquet  lasted.  The  third  night  the 
Indians  arose  and  smote  their  treacherous  invaders 
and  slew  them,  so  that  not  one  of  the  two  hundred 
was  left  to  tell  the  terrible  tale  to  his  companions  on 
the  beach.  But  the  Indians  themselves  bore  the 
tidings,  for  they  fell  upon  the  guard,  killed  some, 
and  wounded  others,  so  that  but  a  handful  reached 
their  ships  and  bore  away  for  St.  Domingo.  De  Ayl- 
lon  himself  seems  to  have  died,  either  of  his  wounds, 
or  shame,  or  both,  at  the  port  in  Chicora. 

A  few  years  later  Pamphilo  de  Karvaez,  in  com- 


20  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES    AND    PEOPLE 

mand  of  a  splendid  armament,  undertook  the  subjuga 
tion  of  Florida.  At  an  earlier  date  lie  had  been  sent 
by  the  governor  of  Cuba  to  arrest  the  victorious 
progress  of  Hernan  Cortez  in  Mexico.  Losing  an  eye, 
and  failing  in  the  attempt,  he  was  conducted  to  the 
presence  of  Cortez,  whom  he  complimented  by 
informing  that  he  must  be  a  remarkable  man,  as  he 
had  succeeded  in  vanquishing  him.  "  That,"  replied 
the  redoubtable  conqueror  of  the  Montezumas,  uis 
the  least  thing  I  have  done  in  Mexico." 

Landing  at  Tampa  Bay,  12th  April,  1528,  with 
four  hundred  men  and  forty-five  horses,  Narvaez 
immediately  dispatched  his  vessels  to  Cuba  for  fresh 
supplies,  paying  no  regard  to  the  prudent  entreaties 
of  the  treasurer  of  the  expedition,  Alvar  Nunez. 
They  soon  roused  the  relentless  hostility  of  the  valiant 
Seminoles  by  their  gratuitous  barbarities,  and  every 
rood  of  their  toilsome  march,  through  tangled  forests 
and  endless  quagmires,  was  rendered  doubly  difficult 
by  ambuscades  and  attacks.  Inspirited,  however,  by 
the  stories  of  some  captives,  acting  as  guides,  to  the 
effect  that  in  Appalache  they  would  find  a  fertile 
province,  abounding  with  gold,  the  object  of  their 
eager  quest,  they  urged  their  way  onward.  On 
reaching  the  land  of  promise,  Narvaez,  who  had  pic 
tured  to  himself  another  Mexico,  was  bitterly  unde 
ceived,  finding  only  a  rude  village  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  cabins.  They  took  possession  unopposed, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  21 

for  the  inhabitants  had  fled  to  the  woods.  Twenty- 
five  days  were  passed  here ;  but  the  army,  now  more 
clamorous  for  bread  than  for  gold,  learning  that  the 
sea  lay  nine  days'  march  to  the  southward,  bent  its 
weary  steps  toward  the  village  of  Ante,  where,  it 
was  said,  were  plenty  of  provisions  and  a  harmless 
people.  Their  path,  however,  was  beset  by  yet 
greater  natural  obstacles,  and  by  the  implacable  fury 
of  the  savages.  At  length  reaching  Ante,  not  far 
from  the  present  St.  Marks,  they  found  the  village 
burned  by  the  retreating  inhabitants,  but  esteemed 
the  discovery  of  a  plentiful  supply  of  maize,  ample 
compensation. 

"What  was  to  be  done  ?  Their  hopes  of  conquest 
and  treasure  were  gone ;  to  remain  in  the  land  was 
impossible ;  to  traverse  the  shore  in  search  of  their 
ships  might  "be  fruitless,  and  would  needlessly  expose 
them  to  the  sleepless  ferocity  of  the  Indians.  Many 
of  their  horses  were  slain  ;  so  were  not  a  few  of  their 
bravest  companions. 

A  day's  march  brought  them  to  the  banks  of  the 
river,  which  widened  into  a  bay.  Here  they  resolved 
to  build  them  such  boats  as  they  might,  and  in  them 
seek  their  ships  or  attempt  a  return  to  Cuba.  Right 
vigorously  did  they  ply  their  work ;  and  at  length  five 
frail  barks  were  launched,  in  each  of  which  on  the 
20th  of  September,  1528,  were  crowded  from  forty  to 
fifty  miserable  souls :  crowded  so  that  the  gunwales 


22  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

were  almost  even  with  the  water.  Thus  along  that 
tropic  shore  did  they  hope  to  coast  in  the  season  of 
storms.  Narvaez,  remaining  one  day  in  one  of  his 
boats  with  a  sailor  and  a  sick  page  as  a  guard,  while 
his  crew  went  ashore  to  pillage  for  food,  was  driven 
out  to  sea  by  a  tempest  and  never  heard  of  more. 
The  only  survivors  of  this  ill-starred  expedition  were 
Alvar  !Nunez  and  four  companions,  who,  after 
incredible  wanderings  along  the  northern  shore  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  westward  through  Texas  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  thence  to  Mexico,  exposed  to 
every  species  of  hardship  and  peril — after  passing 
from  tribe  to  tribe  of  Indians,  sometimes  starved  as 
slaves,  sometimes,  we  may  believe,  worshipped  as 
demi-gods,  in  1537 — nearly  ten  years  from  the  time 
of  their  sailing,  finally  reached  Spain. 

Such  experiences  and  failures  might  have  caused 
reflection.  The  adventurous  Spaniards  even  might 
have  questioned  themselves  what  would  be  the  pro 
bable  best  result  even  of  success.  Old  Governor 
Galvano,  in  his  history  of  the  discoveries  of  the  world, 
says,  with  rare  good  sense  for  that  day,  "  I  cannot 
tell  how  it  commeth  to  passe,  except  it  be  by  the  iust 
judgement  of  God,  that  of  so  much  gold  and  precious 
stones  as  haue  been  gotten  in  the  Antiles  by  so  manny 
Spaniards,  little  or  none  remaineth,  but  the  most  part 
is  spent  and  consumed,  and  no  good  thing  done."  It 
seems  as  if  these  chivalrous  aspirants  for  wealth  and 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  23 

glory  must  Lave  observed  the  same.  And  if  not,  still 
the  sad  fate  of  the  pioneers  in  Florida,  one  would  think, 
were  enough  to  dishearten  and  deter  any  who  might 
thereafter  dream  of  its  exploration  and  conquest. 
Not  so. 

A  little  before  this  time,  in  1537,  there  had 
appeared  at  the  court  of  Charles  Y.  a  renowned  cap 
tain,  adorned  with  laurels  from  the  conquest  of  Peru, 
and  enriched  by  180,000  golden  crowns,  his  share  of 
the  plundered  treasure  of  Atahualpa.  A  gentleman 
by  four  descents,  and  therefore  entitled  to  member 
ship  of  the  noble  order  of  Santiago,  he  had  neverthe 
less  commenced  life  as  a  private  soldier  of  fortune ; 
his  sword  and  target  his  only  possessions.  And  thus 
far  fortune  and  deeds  of  prowess  had  won  him  great 
success.  His  lance  was  said  to  have  been  equal  to 
any  ten  in  the  army  of  Pizarro.  In  the  saddle  his 
match  was  not  to  be  found.  Prudent  in  counsel  as 
he  was  brave  in  the  field,  he  was  no  less  knightly 
in  denouncing  what  he  esteemed  the  wrong — boldly 
withstanding  his  commander  to  the  face,  and  charging 
home  upon  him  the  wickedness  as  well  as  bad  policy 
of  the  Inca's  murder. 

He  was  proud,  determined  and  reserved ;  as  the 
Portuguese  narrator  describes  him,  "  a  sterne  man 
and  of  few  words ;  though  he  was  glad  to  sift  and 
know  the  opinion  of  all  men,  yet  after  hee  had 
delivered  his  owne  hee  would  not  be  contraried."  A 


24  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

recently  published  lac-simile  of  his  signature,  a  large 
and  strong  autograph,  as  by  a  powerful  hand  more 
used  to  wield  sword  and  spear  than  the  pen  of  the 
writer,  corresponds  well  with  his  stately  and  haughty 
character.  Although  not  naturally  liberal,  he  was 
profuse  and  magnificent  in  his  expenditure  in  this 
his  first  appearance  at  court,  and  was  attended  by  a 
troop  of  gallant  knights  who  had  fought  under  him 
in  Peru,  and  had  brought  back  each  a  fortune  from 
the  treasure  of  the  Incas.  Luis  de  Moscoso  de 
Alvarado,  John  Danusco,  and  a  long  list  of  others, 
with  names  equally  claiming  attention,  did  their 
histories  come  within  our  design,  spent  their 
wealth,  acquired  in  soldierly  wise,  upon  soldier's 
luxuries,  mettled  barbs  and  splendid  armor ;  but 
Hernando  de  Soto  surpassed  in  magnificence  all  the 
courtiers  of  the  Emperor.  Only  five  and  thirty  years 
of  age,  tall,  handsome,  commanding  in  presence  and 
action,  was  it  marvellous  that  Donna  Isabella  de 
Bobadilla,  though  the  daughter  of  the  very  earl 
under  whose  banner  he  had  first  enlisted  in  the 
ranks,  one  of  the  fairest  ladies  of  Spain,  of  one  of  the 
proudest  and  most  powerful  families,  should  yield 
her  heart  to  the  irresistible  soldier?  So  fortune  and 
his  merit  won  him  his  best — alas,  that  it  was  also  his 
latest  boon  ! — a  loving,  prudent  and  faithful  wife. 

And  now  could  he  not  rest  in  that  pleasant  palace 
at  Seville,  and  buy  him  cornfields  and  vineyards  and 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  25 

olive  plantations,  and  become  a  great  lord?  "With 
houses  and  lands  and  servants,  friends  and  honor, 
great  connections  and  a  good  and  noble  wife,  had  he 
not  wherewith  to  be  content  ?  But  when  did  the  lust 
of  fame  or  power  or  gold  ever  allow  a  man  to  be 
content  ?  Here  they  united  their  spells,  and  De  Soto 
must  find  new  worlds  to  conquer.  Find  them  he  did 
— but  finding  and  conquering  are  two  things.  So  he 
sought  for  and  obtained  the  magnificent  appointment 
of  captain-general  for  life  of  Cuba,  Adelantado  (civil 
and  military  governor)  of  Florida  ;  and  a  marquisate 
of  thirty  leagues  by  fifteen,  in  any  part  of  the  to-be- 
conquered  country.  He  is  to  undertake  the  conquest 
at  his  own  expense,  and  to  pay  to  the  crown  one  fifth 
of  the  treasure  found. 

And  now  comes  the  wonderful  story  of  Alvar 
iNunez  Cabeca  de  Yaca,  like  an  additional  demoniac 
spell,  to  tempt  this  goodly  knight.  To  be  sure,  the 
treasurer  of  ISTarvaez  brought  home  no  treasure ;  but 
he  threw  out  dark  hints  of  the  great  wealth  of  the 
land  he  had  explored,  and  had  indeed  intended  to 
apply  for  the  very  adelantadoship  which  De  Soto 
had  obtained.  In  default  of  this,  he  asked  and 
received  the  government  of  La  Plata. 

The  imagination  of  De  Soto,  and  of  Spain,  took 
new  fire. 

The  triumphs  and  trophies  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro 
shall  be  as  nothing  to  his  ;  for  what  are  Mexico  and 

2 


26  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

Peru   to   Florida !     Poor  Ponce   de  Leon  !  thy  fatal 
legacy  hath  fallen  to  another  heir ! 

Florida  at  that  day  embraced  all  the  country  lying 
north  of  Mexico,  extending  upon  its  eastern  coast 
from  Key  West  to  the  banks  of  Newfoundland  ;  so 
that  it  embraced  what  we  know  as  the  United  States 
of  America.  Need  we  be  sad  that  it  was  a  woeful 
heritage  to  the  sons  of  Spain  ?  This  land  was  held 
in  reserve  for  the  scions  of  a  nobler  stock  than 
Charles  Y.  governed,  and  for  a  sublimer  civilization 
than  Castile  and  Arragon  were  able  to  bestow  upon 
the  world. 

In  fourteen  months  the  armament  is  ready  to 
weigh  anchor.  Nine  hundred  and  fifty  men,  the 
best  blood  and  chivalry  of  Spain,  gay  young  knights 
thirsting  for  distinction  and  wrealth,  well  tried  war 
riors  from  the  fields  of  Africa  and  Peru,  stout  men  at 
arms,  halberdiers,  cross-bow  men  and  arquebusiers 
— more  have  come  than  the  general  can  take.  Men 
have  sold  their  patrimonial  acres  to  furnish  them 
selves  for  the  campaign.  Shall  not  every  such 
receive  a  hundred  fold  ?  One  disposed  of  60,000 
reals  *  of  rent ;  one  of  a  town  of  vassals ;  Baltasar  de 
Gallegos,  of  "  houses,  and  vineyards,  and  rent  corne, 
and  ninetie  rankes  of  Olive  trees  in  the  Xarafe  of 
Siuil."  The  usual  difficulty  in  fitting  out  an  expedi- 

*  Real,  the  Spanish  silver  coin,  worth  an  eighth  of  a  dollar. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  27 

tion  to  well-known  and  rich  countries  was  to  find 
men.  De  Soto,  bound  to  an  unknown  wilderness, 
was  unable  to  find  vessels  for  the  multitude  of  volun 
teers,  and  many  of  those  who  had  sold  their  estates 
for  the  sake  of  joining  him,  unable  to  find  room  on 
board  the  fleet,  were  forced  to  stay  behind. 

Amid  the  braying  of  trumpets  and  the  roar  of 
artillery,  the  vivas  of  the  beholders  and  the  shouts  of 
the  campaigners,  the  fleet  of  ten  sail  left  the  port  of 
San  Lucar  de  Barrameda,  April  6th,  1538.  They 
reached  Cuba  about  the  last  of  May,  and  here  De 
Soto  spent  a  year  in  organizing  the  government, 
and  making  preparations  for  his  enterprise. 

Cuba  was  noted  for  its  noble  breed  of  horses, 
wherewith  our  gay  cavaliers  supplied  themselves 
amply ;  and  by  way  of  putting  themselves  in  trim  for 
the  work  before  them,  spent  much  time  in  tourna 
ments  and  bull-fights.  The  inhabitants  of  the  island, 
well-nigh  crazed  by  excitement  and  the  brave  show, 
flocked  in  throngs  to  the  standard  of  De  Soto.  At 
their  head  was  Don  Yasco  Porcallo  de  Figueroa,  a 
doughty  old  warrior  who  had  seen  much  severe  ser 
vice  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  and  had  now  settled 
down  as  a  wealthy  proprietor  in  the  Queen  of  the 
Antilles.  As  the  horse  smelleth  the  battle  from  afar, 
so  did  this  veteran.  To  show  him  due  honor,  the 
Adelantado  appointed  him  his  lieutenant  general. 

The  Portuguese  narrator  states  that  Don  Yasco's 


PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

object  was  not  glory,  but  Indians;  whom  lie  desired 
to  obtain  in  order  to  supply  the  places  of  those 
whom  toil  and  cruelty  had  slain  in  his  mines  and 
upon  his  estates  in  Cuba.  This  purpose  seems, 
at  least,  consonant  with  the  character  of  a  Spanish 
Cuban  proprietor;  and  that  his  treatment  of  his 
slaves  was  such  as  to  require  reinforcements  to  their 
numbers,  may  appear  from  a  quaint  old  story  of  his 
steward.  This  steward,  it  seems,  discovered  that 
certain  of  the  Indian  slaves,  as  was  the  sad  custom  of 
their  race,  had  agreed  to  meet  at  an  appointed  place 
and  kill  themselves,  to  escape  from  their  tormenting 
taskmasters.  So  he  repaired  with  a  cudgel  to  the 
rendezvous,  and  when  the  miserable  heathen  had 
assembled,  suddenly  stepped  among  them  and  told 
them  that  they  could  neither  plan  nor  do  anything 
which  he  did  not  know  before  ;  and  that  he  had  now 
come  to  kill  himself  with  them,  in  order  that,  in  the 
next  world,  he  might  treat  them  worse  than  in  this. 
The  poor  wretches  believed  him,  and  returned  quietly 
to  their  labor. 

All  things  were  at  last  settled,  and  leaving  his 
noble  wife  Donna  Isabel  to  govern  the  island,  De 
Soto  sailed  from  Havana,  with  mirthful  pomp,  May 
18th,  1539.  Already  Juan  de  Anasco  had  made  two 
cruises,  to  discover  an  harbor  in  which  to  land.  A 
point  was  selected,  and  thither  the  fleet  sailed.  It 
consisted  of  eight  large  vessels,  a  caravel,  and  two 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  29 

brigantines,  and  contained  a  thousand  men,  besides 
the  sailors.  Whitsunday,  JVIay  25th,  they  made  a 
convenient  bay  on  the  western  or  Gulf  coast  of 
Florida,  which,  in  honor  of  the  day,  was  named 
Espiritu  Santo  :  it  is  now  called  Tampa  Bay.  ISTo 
sooner  had  they  iieared  the  shore  than  bale-fires 
were  seen  blazing,  far  as  the  eye  could  reach :  vast 
columns  of  black  smoke  ascending,  in  token  that  the 
Indians  were  preparing  to  receive  them.  Eight  days 
were  taken  to  sound  the  bay,  and  then  the  debarka 
tion  commenced.  A  slight  skirmish,  in  which  the 
natives  were  soon  dispersed,  was  all  that  occurred  to 
impede  them. 

A  march  of  two  leagues  brought  them  to  the 
deserted  village  of  a  chief  named  Hirrihigua,  where, 
on  the  capture  of  some  of  the  natives,  De  Soto  was 
made  acquainted  with  the  horrible  atrocities  prac 
tised  by  his  predecessor,  ISTarvaez.  That  worthy  hav 
ing  entered  into  solemn  covenant  with  the  cacique, 
suddenly  became  enraged,  at  what  no  one  could  tell, 
ordered  the  dogs  to  be  let  loose  on  the  mother  of 
Hirrihigua,  who  was  soon  torn  to  pieces,  and  then 
commanded  the  nose  of  the  chief  to  be  cut  off.  This 
brutality  had  implanted  in  the  breast  of  the  Semi- 
nole  an  undying  hatred  toward  the  Spaniard.  To 
all  of  De  Soto's  overtures  he  returned  at  first  disdain 
and  then  evasion.  At  this  village,  the  stores  for  the 
campaign  were  landed,  and  at  the  gathering  of  the 


30  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

forces  a  strange  medley  did  the  muster  show.  A 
thousand  knights  and  soldiers,  twelve  priests,  eight 
other  ecclesiastics,  and  four  monks ;  workers  in  wood 
and  iron,  miners  and  assayers ;  then  three  hundred 
and  fifty  thorough-bred  horses,  three  hundred  hogs 
to  stock  the  country,  and  packs  of  bloodhounds  to 
hunt  the  natives.  There  were  matchlocks  and  cross 
bows,  pikes,  lances,  and  swords ;  one  piece  of  ord 
nance  ;  manacles  and  iron  collars  for  their  prisoners ; 
and  a  store  of  baubles,  as  presents  for  those  whom 
they  might  wish  to  propitiate.  Wine,  bread,  and 
flour  for  the  mass,  were  there ;  and,  lastly,  cards  for 
gambling — which,  by  the  way,  w^as  carried  to  excess, 
men  often  losing  the  last  article  they  possessed. 
Stately  knights,  clad  cap-a-pie  in  burnished  armor, 
bestrode  their  prancing  steeds,  while  all  the  com 
monalty  were  well  protected  with  breast-plates, 
bucklers,  and  helmets.  There  had  been  no  stint  of 
money  to  supply  all  that  experience  could  suggest  or 
that  taste  could  hint  as  necessaries  or  luxuries  in  the 
enterprise  of  conquest  and  colonization. 

Kumors  having  reached  the  camp  that  a  Spaniard 
was  living  in  a  neighboring  village,  Baltazar  Gal- 
legos,  a  dauntless  officer,  was  dispatched  at  the  head 
of  sixty  horsemen  to  secure  him  for  an  interpreter 
and  guide.  As  Baltazar  and  his  troopers  were 
rapidly  pushing  on,  they  espied  a  company  of  In 
dians  on  the  verge  of  a  plain.  The  Spaniards, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  31 

anxious  for  a  brush  with  the  natives,  manoeuvred  to 
attack  them ;  but  all  save  two  fled  to  the  forest. 
One  of  these  two  was  wounded  ;  the  other,  at  whom 
Alvaro  Nieto,  one  of  the  boldest  troopers,  was  spur 
ring,  danced  from  side  to  side,  seeking  to  parry 
Nieto's  thrust  with  his  bow,  shouting  the  while, 
"  Seville,  Seville !"  hearing  which,  the  trooper  cried, 
"  Is  your  name  Juan  Ortiz  ?"  "  Yes,"  was  the 
reply.  Reining  up  his  horse,  Alvaro  caught  the 
other  by  the  arm,  raised  him  to  the  croup  of  his 
saddle,  and  hurried  in  triumph  to  Baltazar. 

The  story  of  Ortiz  deserves  a  brief  recital.  Born 
at  Seville,  uof  worshipful  parentage,"  he  had  joined 
the  expedition  of  ISTarvaez,  had  returned  to  Cuba 
with  his  vessels,  and  had  accompanied  the  expedition 
which,  ten  years  before,  had  put  in  at  the  bay  of 
Espiritu  Santo,  in  search  of  his  commander.  It  was 
not  long  after  the  departure  of  that  barbarian,  and 
while  Hirrihigua  was  in  the  agony  of  his  recent 
wrongs,  that,  as  the  expedition  was  coasting  along 
the  shore,  a  few  Indians  appeared,  pointing  to  a  let 
ter  in  a  cleft  reed,  evidently  left  by  ]STarvaez.  The 
Spanirads  invited  them  to  bring  it  aboard.  This 
they  refused ;  but  four  of  them,  entering  a  canoe, 
came  off  as  hosta,ges  for  any  of  the  crew  who  might 
go  to  fetch  it.  Four  of  the  whites  accordingly  landed, 
and  were  instantly  set  upon  by  a  crowd  of  savages 
who  had  been  concealed  in  the  thicket.  The  four 


32  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

hostages  sprang  into  the  sea,  and  swam  ashore.  The 
crew,  anticipating  the  fate  of  their  companions,  and 
fearing  the  like  for  themselves,  made  sail  with  all 
speed.  The  captives  wTere  conveyed  to  the  village, 
and  condemned  to  be  shot,  one  at  a  time.  Three 
were  thus  dealt  with,  and  the  fourth,  Juan  Ortiz,  was 
being  led  forth,  when  the  wife  and  daughters  of  the 
cacique,  touched  with  compassion  at  sight  of  his 
youth  and  comeliness,  interceded  with  Tlirrihigua, 
and  gained  a  respite.  His  life  was  still  a  wretched 
one,  softened  only  by  the  watchful  kindness  of  the 
women,  who  once  even  rescued  him  after  he  had 
been  half  burnt  alive  by  order  of  his  implacable 
captor.  At  length,  through  their  aid,  he  succeeded 
in  escaping  to  the  village  of  Mocoso,  a  neighboring 
chief,  who  treated  him  as  if  he  had  been  a  brother, 
and  protected  him  from  all  danger.  Here  he  had 
remained  ever  since,  and  was  now  residing ;  nearly 
naked,  browned,  painted,  with  a  headdress  of  fea 
thers,  so  that  one  might  not  know  him  from  a  savage, 
on  an  embassy  from  Mocoso  to  the  camp  of  De  Soto. 
Great  was  the  joy  of  the  camp  at  the  recovery  of 
Ortiz.  The  Adelantado  received  him  as  a  son,  gave 
him  all  that  heart  could  wish,  and  thenceforth  lie 
became  the  interpreter  of  the  expedition. 

Meanwhile,  Lieuten  ant-General  Don  Vasco  Por- 
callo,  whom  we  picked  up  in  Cuba,  testy  and  withal 
vain-glorious,  yet  longing  to  distinguish  himself,  en- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  33 

treats  to  be  sent  in  pursuit  of  liirrihigua,  that  lie 
may  ferret  him  out  of  his  swampy  fastness,  and 
bring  him,  friend  or  prisoner,  to  camp.  Despite 
monitions,  he  sets  off,  dashes  forward,  and  is  only 
arrested  by  a  quagmire,  where  himself  and  horse  are 
in  imminent  jeopardy  of  being  smothered.  Con 
quered  by  the  mire,  he  returns  crestfallen  to  head 
quarters,  venting  curses  upon  the  country,  natives 
and  expedition.  "  May  the  devil  fly  away  with  the 
country  where  they  have  such  names!"  quoth  he. 
"  Let  those  fight  in  this  accursed  place  for  fame  and 
wealth  who  will.  As  for  me,  I  have  enough  of  both 
to  last  me.  So  I  will  back  to  Cuba,  and  let  the  hot 
bloods  see  it  out."  Thus  does  Don  Yasco  Porcallo 
de  Figueroa  disappear  from  this  story ;  for,  at  his 
request,  De  Soto  sent  him  home.  "  The  prudent 
man  foreseeth  the  danger,  and  hicleth  himself." 

A  strong  garrison  was  left  to  protect  the  stores, 
and  the  march  commenced  toward  the  northeast. 
As  they  left  the  coast,  the  country  improved,  and 
their  way  lay  by  pleasant  cornfields,  over  grassy 
plains,  and  through  forests  where  the  eye  detected 
many  a  tree  familiar  to  them  in  the  sunny  groves  of 
dear  old  Castile.  The  wild  grapes,  too,  whose  clam 
bering  vines  festooned  the  branches,  were  grateful  to 
men  who  had  grown  up  among  vineyards.  Fifty 
leagues  brought  them,  however,  to  the  marge  of  a 
morass  a  league  in  width,  and  apparently  impassable ; 

2* 


34:  PIONEEKS,    PREACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

and  hereabouts  the  natives,  although  not  attacking, 
had  concealed  themselves,  and  were  waiting  oppor 
tunities  for  opening  the  war.  A  pass  was  at  length 
discovered,  and  after  immense  trouble,  the  army  was 
conveyed  across.  But  here  they  were  effectually 
checked  by  deep  lagoons  and  bayous  that  seemed 
interminable. 

Recrossing  the  swamp,  in  order  to  find  a  better 
line  of  march  for  the  army,  De  Soto,  who  was  ever  in 
the  van  when  difficulty  pressed  or  danger  threat 
ened,  at  the  head  of  a  picked  corps  made  an  exten 
sive  tour  of  observation,  and  found  what  he  sought. 
But  himself  and  men  were  near  starving ;  for  three 
days  and  nights  they  had  little  rest  and  less  food. 
Supplies  must  be  had,  and  the  army  brought  up. 
Calling  to  him  Gonzalo  Silvestre,  a  bold  young  sol 
dier,  "  To  you,"  he  said,  "  belongs  the  best  horse, 
therefore  the  harder  work.  Away,  and  hold  not 
bridle  until  you  have  reached  the  camp.  Bring  us 
what  we  need  and  order  the  forces  to  join  us.  Be 
back  by  to-morrow  night."  Without  a  word  Silvestre 
mounted  and  spurred  away,  calling  to  Juan  Lopez, 
De  Soto's  page,  to  follow.  Neither  of  these  stout 
youths  was  one  and  twenty.  Away  over  the  twilight 
plain  they  sped.  Fifteen  leagues,  tired  as  they  and 
their  steeds  were,  must  be  ridden  that  night.  If 
morning  found  them  in  the  swamp,  almost  certain 
death  awaited  them.  Trusting  more  to  the  sagacity 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  35 

of  tlieir  horses  than  to  their  own  management  to  find 
the  way  on,  through  the  thickening  night  rode  our 
tired  cavaliers  ;  the  silence  broken  by  the  moan  of 
the  cypress  woods,  the  whir  of  a  startled  bird,  the 
croaking  of  the  monstrous  frogs,  and  the  plash  of 
their  horses'  feet :  and  every  now  and  then,  as  some 
camp-fire  blazed  on  an  island  in  the  mire,  revealing 
a  party  of  savages  engaged  in  feast  or  dance,  a  din  as 
of  an  infernal  orchestra  broke  upon  their  ears.  The 
passage  of  a  southern  swamp  is  no  easy  feat  at  any 
time ;  but  at  night,  by  two  youths,  surrounded  by 
hundreds  of  savage  foes,  it  was  an  exploit  worthy  the 
hardiest.  I  mention  it  here  to  show  the  mettle  of 
De  Soto's  troops.  * 

Undismayed  by  sight  or  sound,  they  still  pressed 
forward  until  Lopez,  grown  reckless  through  fatigue 
and  want  of  sleep,  threw  himself  upon  the  ground, 
swearing  he  would  go  not  a  rood  further  until  he  had 
slept.  Silvestre  had  nothing  for  it  but  to  submit. 
Falling  asleep  himself  in  the  saddle,  he  awoke  to  find 
it  broad  day.  Hastily  rousing  his  companion  they 
started,  but  there  was  yet  a  league  before  them, 
and  the  Indians  were  not  long  in  descrying  the  two 
horsemen  and  sounding  the  alarm.  Forthwith  the 
woods  swarmed  with  painted  furies.  Knowing  there 
was  no  resource  left  them  but  resolution  and  their 
horses,  they  pushed  on  at  a  gallop,  their  mail  defend 
ing  them  from  the  shafts  of  their  enemies.  The  yells 


36  PKXSTEFKS,    PEE  ACKERS    AND    I'iiOPLK 

and  war-cries  of  the  savages  at  length  reached  the 
camp,  and  thirty  troopers  rushed  to  their  aid.  Thus 
did  these  brave  youths  reach  their  goal  in  safety. 

Taking  scarce  an  hour  for  rest,  Silvestre  was  again 
in  the  saddle  at  the  head  of  thirty  lancers  conveying 
two  horseloads  of  supplies  to  the  general;  and  not 
long  after  nightfall  had  reached  the  spot  where  he 
had  left  his  commander  the  evening  before.  "When 
the  main  body  came  up,  they  found  the  commandant 
encamped  in  the  plain  of  Aguera,  where  maize  was 
growing  in  abundance.  Here  they  rested  after  their 
late  privations. 

The  Seminoles  had  now  commenced  hostilities  in 
good  earnest ;  not  indeed  by  pitched  battle  in  the 
open  field,  but  by  ambuscades  lurking  in  every 
thicket,  picking  off  every  little  knot  of  Spaniards 
incautious  enough  to  stray  from  the  camp  or  line  of 
march.  Nevertheless  they  were  all  ardor  to  proceed, 
for  some  natives  whom  they  had  captured,  in  reply 
to  their  eager  questions  concerning  the  precious  me 
tals,  assured  them  that  in  Ocali,  a  country  to  the 
northward,  gold  was  so  plenty  that  in  war  the  people 
wore  head-pieces  of  it. 

But  Ocali  is  reached,  and  no  gold  is  found  ;  only 
a  poor  small  town,  empty  of  people.  The  main  body 
of  the  troops  here  came  up  with  the  commander,  after 
a  difficult  and  hungry  march ;  making  up  for  their 
failing  provisions  by  boiling  a  few  beets  which  they 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  37 

found  here  and  there  in  the  fields,  and  chewing  the 
young  stems  of  the  growing  Indian  corn. 

After  brief  delay,  they  press  forward  to  the  domi 
nions  of  Vitachuco,  a  powerful  chieftain,  whose  terri 
tories  are  fifty  leagues  across.  After  some  days  of 
amity  the  Spaniards  discover  a  perfidious  plot  to 
destroy  them.  Yitachuco  has  ordered  a  grand  review 
of  his  warriors,  ten  thousand  strong.  At  a  signal 
twelve  of  his  braves  are  to  seize  De  Soto  and  the 
massacre  is  to  commence.  Trusting  to  take  the  Span 
iards  unaware,  they  deem  their  destruction  easy. 
But  forewarned,  forearmed.  Yitachuco  is  seized  and 
the  Spaniards  charge  the  hordes  of  natives  with  head 
long  valor,  mowing  hundreds  of  them  down  upon  the 
plain,  whilst  masses  fly  to  adjoining  lakes  to  swim  for 
their  lives.  One  of  these  lakes,  wherein  is  the  flower 
of  Yitachuco's  army,  is  surrounded  by  the  troops,  and 
although  they  offer  quarter,  not  a  savage  will  submit. 
Night  comes  on  ;  the  lake  shore  is  vigilantly  patrolled. 
By  daylight  fifty  have  yielded  ;  and  at  ten  o'clock  of 
the  morning,  after  they  had  been  in  the  water  twenty- 
four  hours,  all  the  rest  save  seven  come  ashore. 
These  hold  out  until  three  o'clock,  when  De  Soto,  un 
willing  that  such  steadfast  valor  should  find  a  watery 
grave,  sends  twenty  expert  swimmers  after  them, 
who  drag  them  to  land  more  dead  than  alive.  When 
questioned,  after  their  recovery,  by  the  Adelantado, 
why  they  held  out  so  stubbornly,  four  of  them  replied 


38  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

that  they  were  captains,  and  that  such  should  never 
surrender.  The  other  three,  neither  of  whom  was 
over  eighteen  years  of  age,  replied  that  they  were 
sons  of  neighboring  caciques,  and  would  be  caciques 
themselves  some  day,  and  that  it  did  not  behoove 
such  to  be  guilty  of  cowardice.  This  was  the 
indomitable  spirit  of  the  men  De  Soto  came  to  con 
quer. 

The  warriors  of  Yitachuco  were  reduced  to  slavery; 
still  the  untamed  spirit  of  that  chief  revolved  a  plan 
for  the  extermination  of  the  hated  invaders.  Com 
municating  his  scheme  secretly,  it  was  soon  known  to 
all  his  braves.  On  the  third  day,  while  the  Indians 
were  waiting  on  their  masters  at  dinner,  at  the  sound 
of  his  war-whoop  they  were  to  attack  their  oppressors 
with  whatever  they  could  lay  hands  on,  and  at  once 
destroy  them.  At  the  appointed  time,  Yitachuco, 
who  was  seated  near  De  Soto,  sprang  upon  him 
and  bore  him  to  the  earth,  dealing  him  such  a  blow 
in  the  face  as  brought  the  blood  in  streams  from 
nose,  mouth,  and  eyes.  Raising  his  arm  for  another 
blow,  wliicli  would  have  been  death  to  the  Adelan- 
tado,  he  gav^e  the  whoop,  which  could  be  heard  for  a 
quarter  of  a  league.  At  that  critical  moment  a  dozen 
swords  and  lances  pierced  him,  and  he  fell  lifeless  to 
the  earth.  At  the  signal,  his  warriors  fell  upon  their 
masters  with  pots,  kettles,  pestles  and  stools,  and 
such  arms  as  they  could  seize.  But  they  were  soon 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  39 

overpowered,  for  they  fought  in  chains.  Thus  per 
ished  Yitachuco,  and  with  him,  in  all,  thirteen  hundred 
of  his  brave  warriors.  Some  of  those  slain  performed 
extraordinary  feats  of  valor.  One,  who  was  being  led 
to  the  market-place  to  be  murdered  after  the  fight, 
first  lifted  up  his  master  above  his  head  and  flung 
him  down  so  that  he  was  stunned,  then  seized  his 
sword,  and,  in  the  words  of  the  Portuguese  narrative, 
though  "  inclosed  between  fifteen  or  twenty  footmen, 
made  way  like  a  bull,  with  the  sword  in  his  hand, 
until  certain  halberdiers  of  the  governor  came,  which 
killed  him."  Of  the  Indians  who  remained  alive 
after  the  strife  was  over,  about  two  hundred  in  num 
ber,  some  were  given  as  slaves  to  those  who  had  the 
best  claim,  and  the  rest  were  shot  to  death  in  cold 
blood,  by  the  archers  of  De  Soto's  guard,  or  by  the 
Indian  allies. 

And  here  it  may  be  well  to  say  a  word,  once  for 
all,  of  the  treatment  of  the  Indians  by  De  Soto  and 
his  men.  This  was  such  as  excuses  these  high-spi 
rited  barbarians  a  thousand  times  over  for  their  con 
stant  and  unflinching  enmity  to  the  Spaniards,  and 
for  all  the  savage  arts  used  to  oppose  the  invaders. 
As  De  Soto  went  from  nation  to  nation,  he  was  ac 
customed  to  demand  the  services  of  large  numbers  of 
Indians  as  porters.  Four  thousand  at  one  time  were 
thus  employed  in  transporting  the  baggage.  This 
servile  drudgery  was  sufficiently  intolerable  to  the 


PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

warriors  of  the  woods.  But  the  Christians  were  ac 
customed  to  make  occasional  expeditions  for  the  ex 
press  purpose  of  procuring,  not  friendly  porters,  but 
slaves  to  labor  in  chains.  A  hundred,  including  men 
and  women,  were  thus  taken  in  a  single  expedition,  a 
little  after  the  death  ofYitachuco.  These  were  led  by 
irons  about  their  necks,  and  were  made  to  carry  bag 
gage,  grind  maize,  and  serve  their  Spanish  masters  in 
all  things  which  a  captive  might  do.  Although  the 
superior  arms  of  the  Spaniards  enabled  them  to  retain 
many  of  these  captives,  of  wThora  some  even  accom 
panied  the  remains  of  the  expedition  to  Mexico,  yet 
their  stubborn  and  revengeful  spirit  gave  their  cap 
tors  constant  annoyance.  Sometimes,  as  one  was  led 
in  chains  to  labor,  he  slew  the  Christian  wrho  led  him 
and  ran  away  with  his  gyves ;  others  filed  their  fet 
ters  through  by  night  with  a  stone,  and  thus  escaped. 
They  undoubtedly  gave  all  the  information  in  their 
power  to  their  countrymen  in  the  woods,  w^hich  must 
have  aided  them  materially  in  their  desperate  attacks 
upon  the  Spaniards. 

De  Soto,  after  the  death  of  Vitachuco,  bent  his 
steps  westward  through  the  province  of  Osachile, 
where  they  still  found  their  path  infested  by  hostile 
savages,  wTho  stoutly  contested  every  step  of  the  way. 
At  one  broad  morass,  in  particular,  probably  that  at 
the  head  of  the  Estauhatchee  Eiver,  in  the  middle  of 
which  was  a  lagoon  half  a  league  wide,  the  Indians 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  4:1 

made  a  resolute  stand.  The  path  downward  through 
the  tangled,  swampy  forest,  would  admit  of  but  two 
abreast,  and  was  cleared  under  water  to  the  same 
breadth,  until  the  lagoon  was  too  deep  to  be  forded. 
This  deep  centre  was  passed  by  a  slender  and  perilous 
bridge  of  logs  tied  together,  and  on  the  other  side 
the  same  narrow,  dangerous  path  ascended  through 
another  tangled,  swampy  forest.  Just  beyond  this 
morass,  the  Indians  had  impeded  a  large  extent  of 
woods  by  felling  logs  and  tying  and  interlacing  them 
among  the  standing  trees,  upon  a  piece  of  ground 
very  near  where,  ten  years  before,  they  had  defeated 
JSTarvaez.  After  three  days  of  dangerous  and  most 
fatiguing  fighting,  up  to  their  waists  in  water,  and 
afterward  in  the  barricaded  forests  filled  with  their 
yelling,  invisible  foes,  the  wearied  Spaniards  forced  a 
way  through  into  a  region  less  beset,  and  at  length 
reached  the  chief  village  in  the  fertile  and  populous 
province  of  Appalache,  near  Tallahassee,  where  they 
took  up  their  winter  quarters.  A  scouting  party  dis 
covered  the  sea  at  no  great  distance,  and  found  the 
bay  of  Aute,  from  which  the  unfortunate  Narvaez 
had  embarked.  On  the  solitary  coast  were  yet  to  be 
seen  the  coals  of  his  forges,  the  skulls  of  his  horses, 
and  the  troughs  where  he  had  fed  them.  The  intre 
pid  Juan  de  Anasco  was  now  dispatched,  with  thirty 
troopers,  to  Pedro  Calderon,  who  had  been  left  in 
command  at  the  village  of  Hirrihigua,  to  order  him 


42  PIONEERS,    PKEACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

to  join  the  general  with  his  men  and  supplies.  The 
enterprise  was  beset  with  difficulties  from  which 
the  boldest  might  shrink.  To  traverse  a  country 
peopled  by  a  warlike  race,  whose  undying  antipathy 
to  the  Spaniards  had  been  aroused,  to  thread  a  maze 
which  had  well-nigh  proved  fatal  to  the  main  army, 
was  a  task  which  might  well  have  made  the  stout 
est  quail.  But,  notwithstanding  incredible  hard 
ships  and  peril,  the  dauntless  Juan  succeeded.  Pe 
dro  Calderon  joined  the  army,  and  the  two  brigan- 
tines  were  brought  around  from  Espiritu  Santo  to 
the  Bay  of  Aute.  These,  exploring  the  coast  west 
ward,  discovered  the  bay  of  Achusi,  now  Pensacola. 
Appointing  this  as  a  rendezvous,  De  Soto  ordered 
Maldinado  to  sail  for  Cuba,  and  to  return  with 
supplies. 

At  Appalache,  or  as  it  is  also  named,  Anaica  Appa- 
lache,  not  far  from  Tallahassee,  De  Soto  went  into 
quarters  for  the  winter.  The  number  of  his  men, 
his  careful  strengthening  of  his  defences,  and  the  pre 
cautions  which  he  took,  enabled  him  to  repel  the  in 
cessant  attacks  of  the  natives,  who,  however,  kept 
him  in  constant  watchfulness,  and  picked  off  every 
Spaniard  who  strayed  from  the  camp.  As  a  means 
of  preventing  these  attacks,  he  succeeded  in  obtain 
ing  possession  of  Capafi,  the  chief  of  Appalache,  a 
man  so  fat  that  he  could  not  walk ;  but  after  a  short 
time,  the  cunning  old  chief  crawled  away  on  his 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  43 

hands  and  knees  from  his  guards  while  they  were 
sleeping,  and  was  never  retaken.  The  hardy  and 
fearless  Spaniards,  however,  now  well  experienced  in 
Indian  warfare,  kept  watch  and  ward,  repelled  all 
attacks,  and  maintained  themselves  through  the 
winter  in  comparative  comfort. 

And  now  the  second  year  of  the  expedition  opens 
upon  them.  The  land  is  in  the  bloom  of  spring.  The 
new-born  leaves  seem  to  clap  their  hands  in  joy,  as 
they  dally  with  the  soft  south  breeze ;  the  sward  is  tuft 
ed  with  flowers  of  every  hue ;  the  air  is  flooded  with 
the  mocking-bird's  rich  and  ever  changeful  song ;  the 
tender  blade  cleaves  the  mold  ;  and  all  the  land  is 
gay  in  the  garments  of  the  opening  tropic  year.  Will 
not  this  man  take  her  as  a  bride  from  God  ?  !N"ay  ! 
unless  she  has  yellow  treasure  on  her  breast.  A  yel 
low  grave  shalt  thou  have,  Hernando  de  Soto !  but  no 
gold! 

The  captives  tell  them  of  Cofachiqui,  a  region  to  the 
northeast,  where  the  precious  earth  can  be  had  in 
plenty ;  their  reports,  doubtless,  referring  to  the  Geor 
gia  and  South  Carolina  gold  fields,  which  other  au 
thorities  prove  to  have  been  early  worked  by  the  In 
dians. 

Accompanied  on  part  of  their  route  by  four  thou 
sand  friendly  Indians  sent  by  the  chief  of  Cofaqui  to 
carry  the  baggage,  and  by  as  many  more,  under 
Patofa,  the  war-chief  of  Cofaqui,  as  escort ;  with  vari- 


44  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

ous  lot  of  hospitable  welcome  from  friendly  natives, 
and  threatened  starvation  in  immense  pine  barrens ; 
now  in  lonely  devouring  bogs,  and  then  in  fertile  and 
cultivated  tracts;  here  feasting  in  the  midst  of  plenty, 
there  famishing  in  deserts  of  sand  under  the  pine 
trees,  that  offer  them  nothing  but  a  tomb — thus  they 
cross  the  present  State  of  Georgia  diagonally  from 
southwest  to  northeast,  until  they  strike  the  Savan 
nah  Kiver  at  Silver  Bluff.  On  the  opposite  side  was 
the  town  of  Cofachiqui,  where  ruled  a  youthful 
queen  of  rare  grace  and  beauty.  Gliding  across  the 
river  in  a  canoe,  attended  by  her  principal  men,  she 
gave  the  strangers  a  courteous  welcome,  presenting 
to  De  Soto  a  pearl  necklace  a  yard  and  a  half  in 
length.  Commanding  her  subjects  to  provide  canoes 
and  rafts,  the  army  was  transported  across  the 
river. 

Here  the  host  remained  encamped  for  some  weeks, 
in  friendly  intercourse  with  this  peaceful  and  hospit 
able  nation.  In  the  tombs  of  their  ancestors  the 
Indians  showed  them  vast  treasures  of  pearls,  com 
puted  to  be  not  less  than  fourteen  bushels,  of  which 
De  Soto,  though  invited  to  take  them  all,  preferred  to 
select  only  a  small  number,  leaving  the  remainder  for 
a  subsequent  expedition.  Here  also,  in  a  depository 
of  Indian  weapons  annexed  to  a  place  of  burial,  they 
found  a  Spanish  dagger  and  coat  of  mail,  evidently 
the  relics  of  the  expedition  of  Lucas  Yasquez 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  45 

De  Ayllon,  which  had  come  to  an  end  so  sorrowful 
and  so  well  deserved,  fifteen  years  before. 

After  a  time,  there  came  rumors  of  gold  from  the 
west ;  and  bearing  their  specimen  pearls,  and  inhos 
pitably  rewarding  good  with  evil  by  seizing  their 
beautiful  and  generous  young  hostess,  in  order  that 
her  authority  might  secure  them  good  treatment  and 
safety  on  the  road,  they  march  across  the  southern 
end  of  the  Alleghany  range  to  northwestern  Georgia. 
On  the  road,  the  princess  of  Cofachiqui  escaped, 
carrying  a  little  treasure  of  valuable  pearls.  Travel 
ling  onward,  they  arrive  at  Chiaha,  where  they  find 
a  pot  of  honey,  the  first  and  last  seen  by  the  expedi 
tion,  and  the  only  honey  mentioned,  it  is  believed,  as 
existing  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  before 
its  settlement  by  the  whites,  who  are  usually  sup 
posed  to  have  introduced  the  bee.*  Questioning  the 
chief  of  Chiaha,  if  he  "  had  notice  of  any  rich  coun- 
trie,"  the  Indian  said  that  at  Chisca,  toward  the  north, 
there  wras  copper,  and  another  finer  and  softer  metal. 
De  Soto  sends  two  envoys  with  Indian  guides  to  find 
the  place ;  but  they  return  with  no  gold,  and  with 
news  of  none,  bearing  a  buffalo  hide  for  their  only 
prize.  Next  they  travel  through  the  great  province 
of  Cosa,  supplied  by  the  inhabitants  with  porters  for 
the  baggage,  and  with  provisions.  Besting  in  one 

*  Peter  Martyr  says  that  the  Mexicans  had  both  honey  and  wax. 
(Decades  of  the  Ocean,  Dec.  5,  cap.  10.) 


46  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

place  twenty  days,  and  twenty-five  in  another,  they 
pass  through  this,  the  goodliest  land  they  have  yet 
seen,  and  bending  southward,  inarch  by  Tallise, 
through  the  territory  now  called  Alabama,  toward 
the  capital  of  a  great  chief  called  Tuscaloosa,  whom 
they  meet  upon  the  border  of  his  dominions,  near  the 
present  city  of  Montgomery.  Tuscaloosa,  or  Black 
"Warrior,  a  chieftain  of  a  tribe  probably  the  Choctaws, 
was  the  mightiest  cacique  in  all  this  region ;  ruling 
apparently  over  a  great  part  of  the  present  States  of 
Alabama  and  Mississippi.  He  was  so  tall  that  when 
mounted  upon  the  largest  horse  in  the  army,  his  feet 
nearly  touched  the  ground.  He  was  eminently 
handsome,  although  grave,  stern,  haughty  and  repel- 
lant  in  demeanor.  This  magnificent  chief,  who  was 
born  to  rule,  received  De  Soto,  sitting  upon  a  simple 
wooden  throne,  and  shaded  by  the  broad  round 
standard  of  painted  deerskin  which  was  his  ensign  in 
war.  With  a  laconic  welcome,  he  set  out  to  guide 
the  Spanish  commander  to  his  capital,  Mauvila,  or 
Maubila,  situated  ten  days'  march  to  the  southward ; 
a  reminiscence  of  whose  name  exists  in  that  of  the 
city  of  Mobile.  To  insure  good  treatment  from  the 
natives,  after  his  custom,  De  Soto  surrounded  the 
Black  Warrior  with  a  guard,  professedly  of  honor, 
but  really  to  hold  him  as  a  hostage.  This  the  proud 
chief  at  once  discovered;  but  betrayed  no  sign  of  dis 
pleasure.  At  length,  within  a  day's  march  of 


OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI.  47 

Maubila,  De  Soto  with  a  hundred  horse  and  a  hun 
dred  foot,  accompanied  by  Tuscaloosa,  pushed  for 
ward  to  the  capital,  leaving  the  remainder  of  the 
force  to  be  brought  up  by  Luis  de  Moscoso,  master 
of  the  camp.  The  Adelantado  apprehended  that 
danger  threatened  at  JMauvila,  and  was  in  haste  to 
resolve  his  doubt.  Reaching  the  town  early  in  the 
morning,  he  found  it  a  walled  place.  A  stockade  of 
great  tree  trunks  had  been  formed,  transverse  beams 
had  been  lashed  to  these  by  means  of  vines,  and  over 
all  was  a  stucco  of  mud  hardened  in  the  sun.  At 
every  fifty  paces  were  towers  on  the  walls,  capable 
of  holding  eight  bowmen.  Many  of  the  trees  in  the 
stockade  had  survived  transplanting,  and  were  in  full 
leaf,  giving  to  the  fortification  a  strange  beauty.  The 
houses  were  built  on  broad  streets,  and  although  but 
eighty  in  number  were  yet  so  large  that  each  would 
hold  a  thousand  persons.  In  the  centre  was  a  great 
public  square.  The  town  was  built  in  the  midst  of  a 
plain,  finely  situated  upon  a  noble  bluff  of  the  Ala 
bama  Hiver,  whose  peaceful  current  was  seen  in  the 
distance  gliding  between  beautiful  banks.  The 
other  margin  of  the  plain  was  skirted  by  a  forest. 
Near  the  western  wall  was  a  beautiful  limpid  lake. 

In  obedience  to  the  orders  of  Tuscaloosa,  booths 
had  been  erected  outside  the  walls  for  the  accommo 
dation  of  the  army,  while  the  chief  house  of  the  town, 
had  been  set  apart  for  De  Soto  and  his  officers. 


48  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

Alighting,  the  proud  chief  moved  haughtily  off 
toward  his  people,  to  see,  as  he  said,  that  all  was  in 
readiness  for  his  guests.  Not  returning,  and  the 
houses  seeming  to  be  filled  with  warriors  and  young 
girls — many  of  whom  were  exceedingly  beautiful — 
but  no  old  people  or  children  appearing,  De  Soto's 
apprehensions  were  quickened.  Desirous  of  regain 
ing  the  person  of  Tuscaloosa,  he  sent  Juan  Ortiz  to 
announce  that  the  Adelantado  was  waiting  breakfast 
for  the  chief.  Thrice  was  the  message  sent,  but  no 
chief  appeared.  At  last  a  warrior,  quitting  one  of 
the  houses,  shouted  a  threatening  defiance  to  the 
Spaniards.  Baltazar  de  Gallegos,  who  was  near  at 
hand,  cut  him  down.  The  warrior's  son  attempting 
to  avenge  him,  shared  his  fate.  And  now  began  the 
fight  in  frightful  earnest.  Indians  swarmed  from 
every  lodge,  and  the  earth  seemed  suddenly  covered 
with  them.  De  Soto  and  his  men,  fighting  despe 
rately,  fell  back  outside  the  walls  to  where  the  horses 
were  picketed.  Graining  these,  they  flung  themselves 
into  the  saddle  and  fiercely  charged  the  foe.  Back 
ward  and  forward  swept  the  tide  of  battle.  Some 
times,  driven  by  flights  of  deadly  arrows,  the  Span 
iards  retreat  to  the  edge  of  the  forest.  Then  rallying, 
they  come  thundering  down,  with  the  war  cry  "  San 
tiago  and  our  Lady,"  upon  the  hordes  of  naked 
savages  awaiting  them.  These,  borne  down  by  the 
terrible  shock,  retreat  to  the  walls  and  close  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  49 

ponderous  gates,  but  send  clouds  of  deadly  missiles 
against  their  enemies.  Hour  after  hour  does  the  bat 
tle  rage.  The  mail,  the  weapons  and  the  discipline 
of  the  Spaniards  give  them  a  fearful  advantage 
against  the  naked  bodies  and  undrilled  array  of  the 
savages  ;  but  the  odds  of  numbers  are  overwhelming, 
two  hundred  against  thousands — for  Moscoso  has  not 
arrived.  He  and  his  men  loiter  in  the  shady  glades, 
picking  grapes  and  flowers,  singing  songs  of  dear  old 
Castile,  light  of  heart  that  they  shall  soon  hear  news 
from  Cuba  and  receive  abundant  supplies — for  it  is 
now  October,  the  month  in  which  Maldiriado  is  to  be 
at  Pensacola,  and  hence  to  that  place  is  less  than 
thirty  leagues.  As  thus  they  loiter  through  the  plea 
sant  woods,  the  sunny  river  peeping  every  now  and 
then  between  the  branches,  the  land  seemed  as 
lovely  as  the  valley  of  the  Xenil,  outspread  beneath 
the  towers  of  the  Alhambra. 

But  suddenly  the  distant  sound  of  trumpet-calls, 
and  shouts  and  savage  war-cries  are  faintly  heard,  far 
in  front ;  and  soon  they  discern  a  column  of  smoke 
slowly  rising  into  the  air  in  the  distance.  There  is  a 
battle ! 

The  word  is  passed  along  the  line ;  stragglers  fall 
in,  and  at  a  rapid  pace  come  up  the  reinforcements. 
The  battle  rages  with  redoubled  fury ;  the  Spaniards 
dash  at  the  gates  and  force  them.  The  streets  and 
the  square  are  filled  with  combatants  and  corpses. 
3 


50  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

The    Christian's   war-cry    joins  with  the  deafening 
shout  of  the  Indians.     They  fall  like  grain  before  the 
mower's  scythe  under  the  swords  and  lances  of  their 
foemen  ;  yet  no  one  cries  for  quarter.     The  only  tar 
gets  which  the  steel  clad  Spaniards  offer  the  Indian 
archers  is  mouth   and   eyes    and  the  joints  of  the 
armor.      The  Indian  women  join  their  husbands  and 
lovers  in  the  fight,  and  are  the  fiercest  of  the  throng. 
Everywhere  De  Soto  is  seen  in  the  thickest  of  the 
melee.    Rising  in  his  stirrups  to  deal  a  fatal  blow,  an 
arrow  strikes  him  in  the  thigh  through  the  openings  of 
his  armor.   Thenceforth  he  fights  standing  in  his  stir 
rups.   But  the  Spaniards  have  fired  the  town,  and  the 
flames  spread  fearfully,  enwrapping  every  dwelling. 
As  their  forked   tongues   lapped  up   Maubila  and 
its  brave    people,   the    sun,  hidden    by   clouds  of 
smoke,  was    casting   a   sickly   glare    from    behind 
the  tree-tops.     The  tragedy  is  finished,     Nine  hours 
did  the  battle  rage.     At  least  five  thousand  Indians 
are  slain.     Nor  is  the  plight  of  the  Spaniards  envi 
able.     Eighty-two  of  their  best  warriors  have  fallen, 
while  among  the  survivors  seventeen  hundred  griev 
ous  wounds  are  distributed,  and  there   is   but   one 
surgeon  in  the  camp,  and  he  unskilled.     Forty  -two 
horses,  mourned  as  companions  and  friends,  are  slain. 
All  the  camp  furniture,  baggage  and  supplies,  the 
pearls  and  trophies   of  savage  wealth  which   had 
been  placed  in  the  houses  or  carelessly  cast  down 


OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI.  51 

about  the  walls,  are  consumed  ;  and  worst  of  all,  the 
wheaten  Hour  and  wine,  preserved  with  sedulous 
care  for  the  Eucharist,  are  burned  also. 

A  dismal  night,  indeed,  was  that  after  the  battle 
of  Maubila.  Numbers  of  the  wounded  died  before 
their  hurts  could  be  attended  to.  Eight  days  they 
remained,  attending  on  the  disabled,  in  wretched 
sheds  within  the  town ;  and  then,  carrying  them  to 
huts  constructed  on  the  open  ground  without,  they 
remained  twenty  days  longer,  ere  the  troops  are  in 
marching  order,  having  recovered  from  the  wounds 
of  the  battle,  and  measurably  from  a  strange  disease, 
occasioned  by  want  of  salt.  This  commenced  with 
fever  and  speedily  corrupted  the  whole  body,  end- 
ing,  after  three  or  four  days,  in  a  fatal  mortification 
of  the  intestines.  The  use  of  the  ashes  of  a  certain 
plant  was  a  preventive  of  this  disorder ;  yet  it  de 
stroyed,  says  Garcilasso  de  la  Yega,  as  many  as  sixty 
of  the  Spaniards  in  one  year. 

But  whither  shall  they  go  ?  Intelligence  has 
reached  the  camp  that  Arias  and  Maldinado  are 
arrived  at  Ochus,  their  appointed  rendezvous,  but 
seven  days'  march  to  the  southeast,  with  provisions 
and  supplies  for  founding  a  colony.  At  first,  De 
Soto  is  filled  with  joy,  for  he  sees  at  hand  the  means 
of  establishing  the  settlement  which  he  has  always 
designed  to  make  the  headquarters  for  his  further 
search  after  gold.  But  he  is  told  that  the  army  is 


52  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

full  of  murmurs  at  their  endless  and  profitless  hard 
ships,  and  that  his  leaders  and  men  are  proposing  to 
seize  the  opportunity,  and  sail  for  Mexico  or  Peru. 
There  is  gold  for  him  who  can  win  it ;  here  are  only 
toil,  wounds,  danger,  disease,  death.  The  Adelantado 
sees  that,  once  at  the  seacoast,  his  army  will  desert ' 
him.  No  new  troops  will  undertake  an  enterprise 
already  branded  with  failure ;  and  he  has  no  second 
vast  fortune  to  embark  in  the  undertaking.  He  has 
staked  his  all  on  this  one  throw — fortune,  fame, 
hope,  honor,  life.  Shall  he  now  slink  back  to  Cuba, 
a  hundred  of  his  brave  companions  dead,  poor  in 
purse,  vanquished  by  the  poverty  and  the  savage- 
ness  of  these  wild  forests  and  grassy  savannas? 
These  bitter  reflections  drive  him  to  a  desperate 
resolution,  which  he  seems  here  deliberately  to  have 
formed,  and  silently  to  have  adhered  to  until  just 
before  his  death ;  namely,  to  send  home  no  news  of 
himself  until  he  had  found  the  rich  regions  which  he 
had  set  out  to  seek.  And,  as  if  he  had  at  the  same 
time  been  hopeless  of  success,  and  acted  merely  in 
shame  and  desperation,  his  demeanor  was  thence 
forth  changed.  Always  stern  and  reserved,  he  grows 
now  moody,  silent,  savage.  The  word  of  command 
is  given,  and  the  line  of  march  resumed  to  the  north 
west,  back  into  the  wild  forests,  away  from  ships  and 
home.  And  none  dare  demand  a  reason  from  the 
gloomy  and  severe  commander 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  53 

They  resumed  their  march  Sunday,  Nov.  18,  1540. 
Crossing  the  Black  "Warrior  and  Tombigbee  rivers, 
they  at  length  reached  the  heart  of  the  Chickasaw 
country,  in  the  northwestern  part  of  Mississippi, 
where  it  was  determined  to  winter  in  a  village  called 
Chicasa.  De  Soto,  on  one  occasion,  treated  the 
natives  to  hog  meat,  whereupon  they  acquired  such 
a  taste  for  it  that  his  pig-pens  were  constantly 
invaded.  He  punished  some  of  the  hog-thieves 
severely,  and  this,  together  with  the  robberies  and 
assaults  committed  upon  the  persons  and  property 
of  the  Chickasaws,  kindled  the  wrath  of  that  warlike 
people,  and  they  determined  upon  summary  revenge. 
They  attacked  the  village  at  night,  firing  the  houses, 
and  succeeded  for  a  time  in  throwing  the  Spaniards 
into  confusion.  Many  of  the  latter  were  slain, 
together  with  a  number  of  horses,  which  were  more 
dreaded  than  the  Spaniards  themselves.  But  the 
natives  were  routed,  with  great  loss,  before  daylight. 
It  was,  however,  a  victory  dearly  purchased,  for  the 
Spaniards  lost  forty  men,  fifty  horses,  and  three 
hundred  of  their  four  hundred  swine,  besides  nearly 
all  their  remaining  clothes  and  effects ;  and  were  left 
in  such  evil  plight,  that,  had  the  Indians  attacked 
them  again  the  next  night,  they  must  have  won  an 
easy  victory.  Attributing  this  damaging  surprise  to 
the  negligence  of  the  camp-master,  Luis  de  Moscoso, 
who  had  already  been  so  dilatory  at  the  battle  of 


54:  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

Maubila,  De  Soto  deposed  him,  and  appointed  Bal- 
tasar  de  Gallegos  in  his  stead.  Kemoving  to  Chie- 
kasilla,  a  league  distant,  the  Spaniards  erected  a 
forge,  and  re-tempered  their  swords  which  had  been 
much  injured  by  the  fire,  made  saddles,  horse-furni 
ture,  and  lances,  and  wove  mats  of  the  long  grass  to 
shield  them  from  the  cold,  which  in  March  was  still 
piercing.  These  mats,  in  their  future  wayfarings, 
served  a  valuable  purpose,  as  bucklers,  to  protect 
them  from  the  arrows  of  their  enemies.  At  Chicka- 
silla  they  wintered,  amid  cold  and  snow,  and  in  great 
want  of  clothing. 

As  the  spring  of  the  third  year  of  the  expedition 
opened,  the  fierce  Chickasaws  renewed  their  attacks, 
but  were  repulsed ;  and  on  the  25th  of  April,  the 
army  set  forward  for  a  third  summer  of  wandering 
after  gold,  marching  northwestward.  At  the  for 
tress  of  Alibamo,  on  one  of  the  head  branches  of  the 
Tazoo,  the  Indians  made  a  resolute  stand.  But  the 
invincible  Spaniards  took  it  by  storm,  and  put  to  the 
sword  all  who  fell  into  their  hands.  Hence  to  the 
northwestern  corner  of  Mississippi,  or  the  south 
western  of  Tennessee,  they  journeyed,  through  dark 
forests  and  deep  swamps,  until  they  struck  a  mighty 
river,  which  they  named  Rio  Grande.  Alvar  Nunez 
and  the  survivors  of  the  expedition  of  ISTarvaez  must 
have  crossed  it  much  lower  down ;  but  we  are  accus 
tomed  to  name  De  Soto  as  the  first  European  who 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  55 

set  foot  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi — for  this  was 
their  .Rio  Grande. 

In  April,  1541,  they  stood  upon  the  bluffs  which 
overlook  that  sublime  stream,  rushing  from  the  icy 
regions  of  the  north  to  a  summer  sea.  This  was  the 
pioneer  pilgrimage  of  European  civilization  to  its 
banks,  the  advanced  guard  of  that  innumerable  mul 
titude  which  was  here  to  be  gathered  together  to 
make  another  attempt  at  solving  the  problem  of 
man's  relation,  to  the  earth,  his  neighbor  and  his 
God. 

Building  boats,  they  crossed  the  river,  and  after 
four  days'  march  into  the  wilderness  beyond,  came 
to  the  village  of  Casqui,  or  Casquin,  supposed  to 
have  been  inhabited  by  the  Kaskaskias  Indians, 
afterward  settled  in  Illinois.  This  village  was  in  a 
province  also  called  Casqui,  and  governed  by  a 
cacique  of  the  same  name.  The  chief  inhabited  a 
village  about  seven  leagues  further  on,  where  he 
hospitably  received  the  army,  and  provided  it  with 
provisions  and  quarters. 

During  the  encampment  here,  the  chief  suppli 
cated  De  Soto  to  pray  to  his  God  for  rain,  which  was 
much  needed.  Hereupon  the  Spanish  commander 
caused  a  vast  cross  to  be  erected,  in  a  commanding 
situation,  on  a  lofty  hill  near  the  river,  and  conse 
crated  it  by  a  solemn  religious  ceremony,  in  which 
both  Spaniards  and  Indians  joined.  Then  De  Soto 


56  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

endeavored  to  make  Casqui  understand  how  prayers 
should  be  offered  to  the  one  invisible  God,  and 
related  to  him  the  life  and  sufferings  of  Christ. 

As  the  intonations  of  the  Litany,  and  the  solemn 
strains  of  Te  Deum  laudamus  rose  upon  the  air,  the 
children  of  the  forest  took  up  the  strain,  with  plain 
tive  voice  and  uplifted  eyes,  invoking  the  white 
man's  God.  Here,  then,  upon  the  shore  of  the 
Father  of  Waters,  in  the  northeastern  corner  of  Ar 
kansas,  was  the  symbol  of  our  religion  first  planted, 
eighty  years  before  a  Puritan  had  touched  the  rock  at 
Plymouth.  And  as  if  to  substantiate  the  instructions 
of  the  Spanish  commander,  a  plenteous  shower  of 
rain  came  down  that  very  night. 

De  Soto  delayed  some  days  in  the  village  of  Cas 
qui,  and  then  set  out  northward,  for  the  village  of 
Pacaha  or  Capaha,  who  was  at  feud  with  Casqui,  and 
whom  the  latter  trusted  to  destroy  by  means  of  the 
Spaniards.  He  accompanied  the  latter,  with  his 
warriors,  for  that  purpose ;  and  did  actually  destroy 
numbers  of  his  people,  and  laid  waste  his  town. 
But  De  Soto,  on  his  arrival,  at  once  put  a  stop  to 
these  proceedings,  and,  after  considerable  difficulty, 
induced  Pacaha  to  return  home,  and  issued  orders 
that  none  should  do  any  injury  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  province  or  to  their  possessions.  In  this  place  he 
rested  forty  days,  during  which  he  sent  two  men  to  a 
hill  country,  forty  leagues  westward,  where,  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  57 

Indians  said,  there  was  much  salt,  and  much  yellow 
metal.  They  returned,  in  eleven  days,  with  a  quan 
tity  of  rock  salt  and  some  copper,  but  no  gold.  The 
Indians  also  said  that  northward,  and  beyond  the  line 
of  their  exploring  trip,  the  country  was  cold,  barren 
and  overrun  with  buffaloes. 

De  Soto,  therefore,  resolved  to  return  to  the  village 
of  Casqui,  and  thence  to  strike  southward  for  a  coun 
try  which  the  Indians  called  Quigaute,  and  repre 
sented  as  extensive  and  wealthy.  Here  he  remained 
a  little  time,  and  then,  turning  westward,  entered 
upon  that  long  and  dreary  circuit  in  the  regions  of 
the  Arkansas  and  Red  Rivers,  which  at  last  brought 
him  back  to  the  shores  of  the  Mississippi,  to  die. 
He  passed  through  Coligoa,  at  the  foot  of  a  moun 
tain,  beyond  which  he  fancied  there  might  be  gold  ; 
came  to  Palisema,  in  the  country  of  Cay  as  ;  to  Tunica, 
where  were  found  salt  lakes,  from  which  the  army 
furnished  itself  with  a  quantity  of  good  salt ;  to  Tula 
or  Tulla,  whose  inhabitants,  differing  from  all  they 
had  met  before,  were  exceedingly  ill-looking,  hav 
ing  immense  heads,  artificially  narrowed  at  the  top, 
and  faces  horribly  tattooed  ;  whose  ferocity  was 
more  brutal  and  untamable  than  that  of  any  race 
they  had  met  before,  and  who  could  not  be  ter 
rified  by  threats  and  slaughter,  nor  cajoled  by  gifts. 
Thence  they  marched  to  Utiangue  or  Autiamque, 
where,  fortifying  part  of  a  large  village,  the  forlorn 

3* 


58  PIONEERS,    PBEACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

Spanish  host  went  into  winter-quarters  for  the  third 
time.  The  cold  was  severe,  the  snow  deep,  and  the 
attacks  of  the  savages  incessant ;  but  as  food  and 
fuel  were  plentiful,  the  condition  of  the  troops  was 
on  the  whole  quite  comfortable. 

In  Autiamque  died  Juan  Ortiz,  the  interpreter — 
an  irreparable  loss  to  De  Soto,  who  thenceforth 
found  very  great  difficulties  in  maintaining  even  a 
circuitous  and  obscure  intercourse  with  the  natives. 

When  the  spring  returned,  there  remained,  of  the 
magnificent  host  of  a  thousand  men,  only  three  hun 
dred  soldiers,  besides  non-combatants ;  and  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  horses,  only  forty,  and  many  of 
these  lame  and  useless,  and  all  unshod  during  the 
year  past,  for  want  of  iron.  Eatigue,  sickness,  priva 
tion,  and  the  weapons  of  the  fierce  savages  of  theMo- 
bilian  and  Muscogee  races,  had  destroyed  the  rest. 
And  even  this  scanty  remainder  were  destitute  and 
discouraged.  The  disastrous  fires  of  Maubila  and 
Chicasa  had  devoured  clothing,  arms,  and  wealth. 
They  were  now  dressed  in  skins,  and  their  weapons 
were,  in  many  cases,  such  as  they  had  wrought  out 
themselves.  His  goodly  armament  thus  worn  out 
and  wasted  in  endless  hostilities  with  the  savages, 
and  thus  rapidly  diminishing,  and  his  hopes  of  gold 
so  long  disappointed,  even  the  obstinate  and  perse 
vering  courage  and  hopefulness  of  De  Soto  began  to 
fail ;  and  he  at  length  decided  to  return  to  the  Mis- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  59 

sissippi,  fortify  himself  there,  build  vessels,  and  send 
to  Cuba  for  supplies  and  men. 

The  troops  accordingly  set  forward  from  Auti- 
amque  on  Monday,  March  6,  1542,  being  now  the 
fourth  year  of  their  wanderings  ;  and  going  through 
Ayas,  or  Ayays,  and  Tultelpina,  reached  Amilco,  capi 
tal  of  the  province  of  that  name,  and  standing  in  the 
midst  of  a  country  more  fertile  and  populous  than 
any  they  had  yet  seen,  except  Cosa  and  Appalache. 
Hence  they  proceeded  to  Guachoya,  on  the  Missis 
sippi,  apparently  at  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas, 
where  De  Soto  proposed  to  establish  himself  and 
build  his  vessels. 

Setting  the  necessary  preparations  on  foot,  De  Soto, 
having  heard  of  a  certain  powerful  chieftain  called 
Quigalta,  or  Quigaltanqui,  ruling  a  vast  province  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  Great  Kiver,  sent  an  embassy 
to  him,  to  say  that  he,  De  Soto,  was  the  child  of  the 
sun ;  that  all  men  along  his  road  had  hitherto  obeyed 
and  served  him ;  and  requiring  Quigalta  to  accept 
his  friendship  and  come  to  him,  bringing  something 
valuable  in  token  of  love  and  obedience.  But  the 
chief  dryly  and  sourly  answered,  that  if  De  Soto 
were  the  child  of  the  sun,  he  might  dry  up  the  river, 
and  he  would  believe  him  ;  and  as  to  the  rest  of  the 
message,  that  he  was  wont  to  visit  nobody,  but  that 
all  were  wont  to  visit  him,  and  pay  tribute  to  him. 
That,  therefore,  if  De  Soto  desired  to  see  him,  it  was 


60  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

best  that  lie  should  cross  the  river  himself  and  come  ; 
that  if  he  came  in  peace,  he  should  be  received  with 
special  good  will ;  but  if  in  war,  he,  Quigalta,  would 
wait  for  him  in  the  same  place,  and  would  not  shrink 
one  foot  back  for  him  or  any  other. 

But  when  the  messenger  came  back  with  this  keen 
and  haughty  reply,  the  Adelantado  was  already  on  a 
sick-bed,  confined  with  a  slow  fever.  Ill  as  he  was, 
he  was  irritated  at  the  bold  savage,  and  still  more 
that  he  was  unable  to  cross  the  river  and  seek  him, 
to  abate  his  pride.  But  the  Indians  were  so  nume 
rous  and  so  fierce,  his  own  forces  now  so  reduced,  and 
the  current  of  the  vast  river  so  furious  and  dangerous, 
that  he  was  fain  to  think  upon  fair  means,  instead  of 
foul. 

And  even  while  lying  here,  sick  and  discouraged, 
while  the  fever  grew  upon  him,  De  Soto  performed 
an  action  most  characteristic  of  the  deliberate,  bloody- 
minded,  brutal  carelessness  with  which  the  Spaniards 
of  that  day  regarded  the  Indians.  Many  reports 
came  in  of  proposed  attacks  upon  the  camp,  some 
times  from  one  side  of  the  ri«ver,  sometimes  from  the 
other.  In  order,  therefore,  to  intimidate  the  tribes 
about  him,  De  Soto  determined  to  devote  one  of 
them  to  destruction,  and  accordingly,  sending  a  suffi 
cient  force,  surprised  the  town  of  Amilco.  The  fierce 
troopers  burst  into  this  peaceful  and  unsuspecting 
village,  with  orders  not  to  spare  the  life  of  any  male ; 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  61 

and  not  only  was  this  cruel  order  fulfilled,  but  sun 
dry  of  the  soldiers  slew  all  who  came  in  their  way, 
though  the  surprise  was  so  complete  that  not  an 
arrow  was  shot  at  any  Christian.  This  savage  butch 
ery  was  an  astonishment  even  to  the  Indian  allies 
who  accompanied  the  troops,  and  served  no  good 
turn ;  and  it  was  afterward  noticed  that  those  most 
active  in  it  showed  themselves  cowards  where  true 
valor  was  needed,  and  that  shameful  deaths  were 
visited  on  them  in  retribution. 

But  all  the  earthly  projects  of  De  Soto  now 
drew  to  a  close.  Deeply  feeling  his  fatal  error  in 
wandering  so  far  from  the  sea,  grieved  at  the  losses 
and  sufferings  of  his  men,  harassed  with  anxious  fore 
bodings  as  to  the  future,  and  his  powerful  frame  at 
last  undermined  and  shattered  by  the  destructive  cli 
matic  fever,  he  now  sinks  rapidly ;  and  helpless  and 
hopeless,  one  of  the  noblest  cavaliers  of  the  age  lies 
dying  in  a  rude  Indian  wigwam.  Instead  of  gaining 
vast  treasures,  he  has  lost  them,  and  found  no  more. 
Instead  of  founding  an  empire,  he  has  exterminated  a 
savage  tribe  or  two,  but  has  scarcely  retained  his  au 
thority  over  the  relics  of  his  small  and  shattered  army. 
Instead  of1  winning  world-wide  renown,  he  has  dis 
appeared  from  view  in  those  vast  western  wilder 
nesses,  and  for  years  has  not  even  been  heard  of  by 
Christian  men.  A  sad  and  disastrous  close  for  an  expe 
dition  whose  outset  was  so  splendid  and  so  hopeful  I 


62  PIONEERS,    PBEACHEK8    AND    PEOPLE 

And  now  his  last  hour  draws  nigh,  and  with  the 
steady  courage  of  a  soldier  and  a  Christian,  for  such 
he  was  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  whatever  were  his 
faults,  Hernando  de  Soto  calmly  prepares  to  close  up 
all  worldly  transactions,  and  to  die.  He  makes  his 
will ;  requests  his  officers  to  elect  a  captain  to  suc 
ceed  him,  and  when  they,  in  turn,  desire  him  to 
choose,  appoints  Luis  Hoscoso  de  Alvarado,  remem 
bering  only  the  virtues  and  ability  of  that  captain, 
and  no  longer  preserving  anger  for  the  errors  for 
which  he  had  removed  him  from  his  place  of  camp- 
master.  He  causes  the  officers  and  troops  to  swear 
obedience  to  their  new  leader,  and  then,  calling  them 
to  him  by  twos  and  threes,  and  the  soldiers  by  twen 
ties  and  thirties,  thanks  them  for  their  love  and  loy 
alty  to  him,  expressing  his  regret  at  leaving  them 
unremunerated  for  all  their  toils ;  charges  them  to 
remain  at  peace  with  each  other,  and  asks  pardon  for 
any  wrong  or  offence  of  which  he  may  have  been 
guilty  toward  them  ;  and  so,  with  tenderness,  he  bids 
them  all  farewell.  Thus,  resigning  his  soul  to  God, 
and  confessing  his  sins,  three  years  absent  from  Donna 
Isabella,  and  in  the  forty-third  year  of  his  age,  on  the 
21st  of  May,  1542,  perished  in  the  wilderness,  Her 
nando  de  Soto. 

Anxious  to  conceal  his  death  from  the  natives,  and 
thus  to  preserve  the  spell  of  his  name,  his  companions, 
with  whispered  prayers,  and  silent  but  fast-falling 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  63 

tears,  buried  him  in  the  darkness  in  a  pit,  near  the 
village  of  Guachoya,  where  they  were  encamped. 
But  fearing  lest  the  body  should  be  discovered  by  the 
savages,  and  subjected  to  inhuman  outrage,  they  dis 
interred  it  the  following  night,  and,  having  prepared 
a  coffin  of  evergreen  oak,  bore  it  to  the  middle  of  the 
Great  River  and  sank  it  in  a  hundred  feet  of  water. 
A  sullen  plunge,  a  murmured  Reqitiescat  in  pace  ! 
from  priest  and  cavalier,  and  the  canoes  return  to  land. 
The  army  mourned  as  if  every  man  had  lost  a 
father. 

Nevertheless,  they  resolved  to  abandon  his  plans 
and  strike  westward,  thus  hoping  to  reach  Mexico  ; 
not  seeming  to  know  that  their  latitude  was  far  north 
of  that.  Westward  for  months  they  wandered 
through  swamp  and  canebrake,  now  in  luxuriant 
meadows  and  again  in  waste  howling  wildernesses. 
Waylaid  by  savages,  famishing,  nearly  naked,  they 
kept  on  until  the  eye  was  filled  with  mountains  tow 
ering  to  heaven.  Back  in  haste ;  no  Mexico  is  here. 
Returning,  they  are  overtaken  by  fall  rains,  and  winter 
rigors.  Jaded,  dispirited,  miserable,  their  numbers 
reduced  to  three  hundred  and  fifty,  they  reach  Minoya, 
on  the  Mississippi,  late  in  the  year.  Here  they 
summon  all  their  remaining  energies  and  resources, 
and  gird  themselves  for  a  last  desperate  struggle  with 
fate.  By  spring  they  have  built  seven  brigantines, 
of  short  and  thin  planks,  insufficiently  nailed  together, 


64  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

undecked,  and  calked  only  with  bark  and  grass.  In 
these,  on  the  second  day  of  July,  1543,  they  depart, 
three  hundred  and  twenty-two  Spaniards  all  told, 
taking  twenty-two  of  the  horses  alive,  and  the  rest 
salted  for  provisions ;  and  leaving  the  wretched  inha 
bitants  of  Minoya  starving  to  death  for  want  of  the 
maize  which  the  Spaniards  had  used  for  subsistence 
and  for  provisioning  their  vessels.  They  also  leave 
at  their  place  of  embarkation  five  hundred  Indian 
slaves,  retaining  a  number,  including  twenty  or  thirty 
women.  Committing  themselves  to  the  current,  they 
float  down  the  river  for  nineteen  days  and  nights,  beset 
a  great  part  of  the  way  by  a  flotilla  of  canoes  filled 
with  hostile  Indians  who  kept  up  incessant  assaults 
upon  them,  by  which  they  lost  all  their  surviving 
horses  and  over  fifty  men ;  having  now  no  weapons 
left  except  a  few  swords  and  shields,  and  being  thus 
helpless  against  the  arrows  of  the  savages.  This  voy 
age  down  the  river  was  subsequently  computed  at 
five  hundred  leagues. 

They  reach  the  Gulf,  and  here  trusting  themselves 
in  their  frail  brigantines  to  the  treacherous  deep, 
after  a  painful  and  eventful  voyage,  they  reach  the 
river  and  village  of  Panuco  in  Mexico.  -  They  are 
kindly  received,  and  Mendoza,  the  viceroy,  causes 
them  to  be  brought  to  Mexico,  where  they  are  treated 
with  much  attention  and  honor.  Less  than  three 
hundred  survivors  of  that  gallant  expedition  which 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  65 

four  years  before  had  set  out  from  Cuba  with  much 
music  and  rejoicing,  now  apppeared,  haggard,  black 
ened,  with  tangled  hair,  skins  of  wild  beasts  almost 
their  only  covering,  a  wretched  band  of  wrecked, 
despairing  men.  And  even  now,  the  hearts  of  nearly 
all  lust  for  Florida  again.  Each  curses  his  fellow  as 
the  cause  of  his  leaving  that  land,  which  they  aver  to 
be  the  goodliest  on  which  the  sun  shines.  Fierce 
words  and  fiercer  blows  are  given,  and  thus  amid 
execrations  and  contentions  these  worthies  disappear 
from  history. 

A  word  of  Donna  Isabel,  fair  hapless  lady.  Faith 
fully  had  she  sent  Captains  Maldinado  and  Gomez 
Arias  with  ships  and  plentiful  supplies  in  the  fall  of 
1540.  Waiting  for  a  long  time,  they  then  coasted 
east  and  west  in  search  of  intelligence  concerning  the 
Adelantado.  The  next  spring  they  came  again,  and 
the  next,  and  the  next,  spending  each  summer  in 
searching  for  some  traces  of  the  ill-fated  party.  At 
length  in  1543  the  tireless  captains  touched  at  Yera 
Cruz,  and  heard  the  sad  tidings.  Hastening  to 
Havana,  they  broke  the  news  to  the  Donna  Isabel. 
Having  thus  long  borne  up  against  racking  suspense 
and  torturing  doubt,  hoping  against  hope,  she  now 
yielded,  and  died  in  the  prime  of  her  glorious  beauty, 
the  victim  of  ill-fated  love  and  man's  wild  ambition. 

Oh,  river  of  the  future !  thy  discovery  was  made 
at  heavy  cost,  of  gallant  lives  and  a  broken  heart ! 


66  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

Thy  yellow  waves  are  the  enduring  sepulchre  of  Her- 
nando  de  Soto,  and  the  murmur  of  thy  floods  the 
ever-chanted  dirge  of  the  lady  Isabel,  the  noble  and 
faithful  wife ! 


Lecture   II. 
MARQUETTE  &  LA  SALLE. 


MARQUETTE    AND    LA   SALLE. 

WHATEVER  else  Jesuitism  may  have  done,  it  lias 
given  to  History  one  of  the  noblest  of  those  armies  of 
Heroes  and  Martyrs,  with  the  record  of  whose  deeds 
and  sufferings  its  pages  are  glorified.  Nowhere 
does  the  love  of  souls,  the  contempt  of  danger  and 
death,  patient  endurance  of  hunger,  cold,  nakedness 
and  bonds,  serene  self-possession  under  stripes,  and 
the  joyful  welcome  of  martyrdom,  stand  out  in  more 
illustrious  contrast  to  the  ordinary  sordid  and  selfish 
phases  of  our  nature,  than  in  the  early  mission  story 
of  one  region  of  this  continent. 

In  the  first  settlement  of  Canada  the  two  classes 
which  most  enlist  our  interest  are  the  missionaries 
and  the  voyageurs — the  one  giving  themselves  to 
the  service  of  the  Church,  and  man's  salvation ;  the 
other,  almost  equally  energetic  and  hardy,  opening 
the  resources  of  the  Fur-trade,  and  thus  connecting, 
by  the  ties  of  commerce,  the  kings  and  nobles  of  the 
old  world  with  the  hunting-grounds  and  wigwams 
of  the  Algonquins  and  Dacotahs,  by  the  banks  of 
Superior  and  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi. 

69 


TO  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

Trade  carried  its  votaries  far  into  the  wilderness, 
over  pathless  snows,  through  interminable  forests, 
up  mighty  rivers,  over  the  bosom  of  lakes  that  seemed 
like  seas.  The  spell  of  gold  was  mighty  then,  as 
now  ;  but  for  once  Traffic  was  outdone  by  Religion, 
and  the  Cross  inspired  men  with  a  daring  enterprise 
and  lofty  resolution,  such  as  the  wrorld  has  seldom 
witnessed. 

Father  Dreuillettes  penetrated  the  forest  lying 
between  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Kennebec,  down 
which  he  floated  to  the  sea.  Sojourning  with  the 
savages  ten  months,  bearing  them  company  in  their 
hunts,  suffering  hardships  like  a  good  soldier,  every 
where  showing  fortitude  and  courage,  patience  and 
strength  equal  to  their  own,  he  completely  won  their 
love  and  reverence.  Youges,  taken  prisoner  by  the 
relentless  Iroquois,  was  made  to  run  the  gauntlet 
three  times,  suffered  torment  of  many  kinds,  saw  his 
converts  inhumanly  butchered,  cheered  them  by  his 
ministrations  of  pitying  love,  although  by  so  doing 
he  exposed  himself  to  their  fate ;  and  raising  the 
chaunt  in  his  captive  journey  ings,  provoking  the 
brutality  of  his  persecutors  by  steadfastness,  carving 
the  cross  on  the  trees  near  Albany,  he  showed  him 
self  faithful  in  all  things.  At  length  liberated  by  the 
Dutch  of  New  York,  he  sailed  for  France,  as  the  only 
way  by  which  he  could  reach  Canada  again, 
returned  thither,  went  upon  an  embassy  of  peace  to 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  71 

his  old  tormentors  the  Mohawks,  and  there  he  met 
the  death  of  which  he  had  had  presentiment. 

Daniel  fell  beneath  the  remorseless  blows  of  the 
same  barbarians,  as  he  knelt  in  pious  ministry  to  the 
spiritual  needs  of  his  Huron  converts.  Breboeuf,  a 
great  strong  man  whose  brawny  courage  knew  no 
fear,  whose  ruling  passion  was  a  cupidity  for  martyr 
dom,  could  yet  in  humble  patience  bide  his  Master's 
time.  Employing  himself  the  while  in  uninterrupted 
missionary  labors,  he  is  taken  with  his  associate  L'Alle- 
mand,  a  man  of  delicate  frame,  but  dauntless  cour 
age,  by  the  Iroquois,  in  the  midst  of  their  neophytes. 
They  refuse  to  save  themselves  by  flight,  lest  the 
offices  of  the  Church  should  thereby  be  lost  to  the 
dying  around  them.  Brebceuf  is  tied  to  a  stake,  and 
exhorting  his  tormentors  to  repentance,  and  his  con 
verts  to  be  faithful  even  until  death,  his  brother 
priest  is  led  before  him  robed  in  a  garment  of  bark 
filled  with  rosin.  As  the  torch  is  applied  the 
unshrinking  L'Allemand  exclaims,  "  We  are  made  a 
spectacle  this  day  unto  men  and  angels."  Breboeuf 's 
holy  counsels  are  checked,  as  his  upper  lip  is  cut  off, 
and  hot  irons  thrust  down  his  throat.  He  too  is  set 
on  fire,  and  then  boiling  water  is  poured  over  both 
to  extinguish  the  flames.  Brebceuf  entered  through 
the  gates  into  the  City  above,  Jerusalem,  the  Mother 
of  us  all,  in  three  hours.  L'Allemand  lingered 
seventeen  ;  then  he  too  joined  that  company  which 


72  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

no  man  can  number,  that  have  come  up  out  of  great 
tribulation.  When  we  hear  of  faith  and  love  like 
theirs,  can  we  say,  contemptuously,  "  they  were 
Jesuits,"  and  forget  that  they  were  also  Christians 
sealing  their  testimony  with  their  blood  ? 

As  the  ranks  were  thus  thinned,  they  were  filled 
by  others,  who  pressed  forward,  coveting  to  wear  the 
thorny  crown,  persuaded  that  in  due  time  it  would 
become  a  crown  of  glory.  Among  these  was  James 
Marquette,  a  young  Frenchman.  Born  in  the  small 
but  stately  city  of  Laon,  perched  upon  a  hill-side 
in  the  provence  of  Aisne,  his  family  name  was  a  lus 
trous  one  in  the  annals  of  France  before  his  time, 
and  has  been  since.  Our  own  land  is  indebted  to 
others,  bearing  it,  besides  himself.  Three  Marquettes 
fell  in  the  French  army  which  aided  in  our  Revolu 
tionary  struggle. 

Born  in  1637,  our  young  Frenchman's  early  years 
were  blessed  by  the  care  of  a  devout,  godly  mother, 
who  infused  into  his  mind  a  reverent  simplicity  and 
an  ardent  love  which  kept  him  pure  unto  the  end. 
From  our  mothers  we  borrow  our  best  treasures. 
They  lend  in  gladness,  not  dreaming  of  return.  But 
they  receive  a  hundred  fold  in  this  world,  and  in 
the  world  to  come  life  everlasting. 

At  seventeen  Marquette  renounced  the  world  and 
became  a  Jesuit.  Twelve  years  were  spent  in  teach 
ing,  and  then,  burning  with  a  holy  zeal  to  do  good  to 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  73 

the  heathen,  his  mind  inflamed  by  the  devotion  of 
Francisco  Xavier,  the  model  he  had  chosen  for  imita 
tion  and  emulation,  he  embarked  for  Canada  in  1666. 
Buoyant  with  health  and  hopes  of  usefulness,  the 
young  missionary  touched  the  shores  of  the  new 
world.  Behind  him  rolled  the  sea  which  separated 
him  from  home,  friends  and  mother.  Before  him  lay 
a  wilderness  continent,  with  its  mighty  lakes  and 
rivers,  its  inaccessible  forests  and  endless  plains,  now 
clad  in  tufted  verdure  and  then  garmented  in  snow 
and  ice.  The  roving  tribes  that  peopled  the  land  were 
savages ;  but  they  had  souls  to  be  saved.  True,  their 
tomahawks  had  drank  the  blood  of  his  brethren,  and 
their  scalping  knives  were  yet  red  with  the  gore  of 
martyrs.  Still  they  had  immortal  souls  which  might 
be  won  for  Christ.  Was  it  not  work  for  an  angel  ? 
Surely  it  was  for  a  Christian  disciple.  But  he  might 
perish  ?  ~No  matter.  "Would  he  not  fall  with  his  face 
toward  Zion,  die  where  he  might  ?  So  he  girded  up 
his  loins  and  betook  him  to  his  labor. 

!Nbt  in  haste  are  life's  great  achievements 
wrought ;  but  slowly,  and  by  sure  degrees.  So  Mar- 
quette  first  patiently  studied  the  Indian  dialects,  be 
coming  a  learner  that  he  might  fitly  teach. 

He  was  at  first  destined  to  a  mission  far  to  the 
northward,  and  we  find  him  in  1667  at  Three  Rivers, 
preparing  himself  under  Father  Dreuillettes.  But 
this  design  was  abandoned  and  he  was  next  ap- 

4 


74-  PIONEEKS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

pointed  to  the  Ottawa  Mission — as  that  of  Lake 
Superior  was  then  called — to  labor  with  Father 
Allouez.  Quebec  had  been  founded  by  Champlain 
in  1608.  Le  Barren,  a  Recollet  missionary  who 
came  with  him,  had  ascended  the  Ottawa  River,  and 
reached  Lake  Huron.  In  1629  Canada  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  English,  but  in  1631  it  was  restored  to 
France.  In  1639  Nicolet,  interpreter  of  the  colony, 
had  descended  the  Wisconsin  to  within  three  days' 
sail  of  the  Mississippi,  or  sea,  as  he  understood  the 
Indian  name  "  Great  Water,"  to  mean.  Two  years 
later  Isaac  Youges  and  Charles  Rambout,  Jesuits, 
stood  upon  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  looking  down  upon  the 
land  of  the  Sioux  and  the  basin  of  the  Mississippi, 
with  hearts  longing  to  enter  it.  But  an  Iroquois  war, 
the  next  year,  frustrated  their  design.  Thus,  while 
the  Dutch  of  ISTew  Netherlands  were  huddled  around 
Fort  Orange,  five  years  before  Eliot  addressed  his 
first  Indian  audience  six  miles  from  Boston,  and 
while  the  country  between  Massachusetts  Bay  and 
Connecticut  was  almost  a  pathless  wilderness,  Jesuit 
Fathers  stood  upon  the  water-shed  dividing  the 
streams  of  the  Atlantic  from  those  of  the  Gulf. 
Honor  to  whom  honor  is  due!  " There  is  nothing- 
new  under  the  sun  "  is  a  well-worn  adage  which 
comes  to  us  from  a  man  of  many  experiences.  And 
as  our  knowledge  increases,  the  same  cry  is  more 
than  once  forced  from  our  lips.  You  will  pardon  me. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  75 

I  trust,  for  diverging  from  my  narrative  to  furnish 
you  another  example  of  its  truth.  Two  of  the  chief 
movements  of  our  time  were  antedated  on  this  Con 
tinent,  nearly  two  centuries.  I  refer  to  the  Know 
Nothing  and  the  Maine  Law  parties.  About  1670  it 
was  made  death,  by  a  statute  of  JSTew  York,  for  a 
Jesuit  to  plant  foot  on  soil  of  that  colony ;  and 
about  the  same  period  there  arose  a  formidable  dis 
pute  in  Canada  between  the  civil  and  clerical 
authorities,  as  to  whether  the  vending  of  ardent 

'  O 

spirits  to  the  Indians  should  be  allowed.  The  ques 
tion  embroiled  the  colony,  and  was  hotly  contested 
for  a  long  time.  It  even  served  to  discolor  the  his 
toric  page  of  the  time.  At  length  the  church  side 
of  the  case  was  shown  to  be  unconstitutional,  or 
something  of  that  sort,  and  the  Indians  were  mur 
dered  the  same  as  before,  public  opinion  settling 
down  into  what  is  now  the  verdict  of  juries  in  rail 
road  accidents — Nobody  to  blame. 

But  to  return  to  our  young  missionary,  whom  we 
left  in  Canada,  a  little  over  thirty  years  of  age,  about 
to  embark  for  his  field  of  labor,  the  Ottawa  Mission. 
His  ultimate  destination  was  the  founding  an  estab 
lishment  among  the  Illinois  ;  but  the  novice  must  be 
tried  in  a  vineyard  already  opened,  before  he 
attempts  to  plant  one  himself. 

The  south  shore  of  S  uperior  near  Ste.  Marie,  and  then 
La  Pointe,  are  the  centres  of  his  operations.  Allouez 


76  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND    PEOPLE 

has  gone  to  Green  Bay,  and  so  up  Fox  River,  and  he 
is  alone  with  the  savages.  But  not  the  less  faithfully 
does  he  labor,  that  he  has  no  superior  to  overlook 
him,  nor  brother  to  give  him  sympathy.  On  him,  as 
on  all,  the  Master's  eye  is  fixed,  always  on  us,  never 
off  us ;  and  the  exceeding  great  reward,  does  it  not 
await  the  faithful  workman's  toils  ?  And  fellowship ; 
has  he  not  one  ever  near  him,  in  his  lonely  lodge, 
who  is  touched  with  the  feelings  of  his  infirmities, 
who  was  tempted  in  all  points  even  as  he  ? 

It  is  pleasant  and  helpful  too,  to  read  the  unvar 
nished  tale  of  this  simple  minded  man's  efforts  to  do 
good  to  the  untutored  children  of  the  forest ;  how  he 
taught  the  lessons  of  virtue  and  chastity,  of  forbear 
ance  and  forgiveness  of  injuries ;  how  he  strove  to  win 
them  from  their  idle  superstitions  to  the  worship  of 
the  living  and  true  God ;  to  go  with  him  as  he 
administers  the  holy  rite  of  baptism  to  a  dying  child, 
or  speaks  kind  words  to  sick  and  suffering  men  and 
women  ;  to  be  near  him  as  he  devoutly  performs  the 
offices  of  the  church  or  expounds  the  mysteries  of  the 
faith  in  his  little  thatched  chapel  of  bark.  He  with 
stands  the  proud  and  willful  to  their  face  ;  the  way 
ward  he  admonishes  firmly  but  gently ;  he  cheers  the 
penitent  and  encourages  the  desponding ;  everywhere 
he  seems  striving  to  possess  his  soul  in  patience, 
to  do  the  work  of  an  evangelist,  and  make  full  proof 
of  his  ministry.  Ever  and  anon  news  of  the  great 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  77 

river  and  the  mighty  tribes  inhabiting  its  banks 
reaches  him,  and  he  longs  to  discover  it  and  them. 
His  heart  yearns  for  the  Illinois ;  for  are  they  not  his 
people  ?  But  the  time  has  not  come  yet.  The  dis 
coverer  of  the  age  must  wait — as  who  must  not? 
History  were  indeed  a  dead  letter — were  less  service 
able  by  half  than  the  debris  of  perished  races, 
whereon  the  geologist  reads  the  autograph  of  every 
separate  cycle — did  we  not  gather  from  it  words  and 
thoughts  to  inspire  ourselves  with  strength.  From  the 
fields  of  the  almost  silent  Past  there  comes  a  whisper 
which  is  yet  mightier  than  thunder,  a  word  for  all  the 
lowly  and  great,  the  striving  and  despairing,  but 
most  of  all  to  the  impetuous,  easily  discouraged 
young,  who  need  it  most :  Haste  not,  Rest  not ! 
Time,  Faith,  Energy,  these  conquer  the  world.  This 
lesson  do  I  learn  from  Marquette's  lodge  in  the 
wilderness.  Therefore  is  his  life,  as  that  of  all  truly 
noble  souls,  of  perennial  interest  to  mankind. 

Next  year  he  will  go  to  the  Illinois.  He  has 
been  studying  their  language  from  a  young  Indian 
of  that  tribe,  and  is  already  pretty  well  master  of  the 
tongue.  But  his  hope  is  defeated,  for  a  war  breaks 
out  between  the  Sioux  and  the  people  among  whom 
he  lives.  With  them  he  must  voyage  eastward,  with 
his  back  upon  the  land  of  promise,.  But  at  length  he 
is  with  his  Hurons  at  Mackinaw,  and  his  glance  wan 
ders  over  the  lake  to  the  west  and  southwest ;  it  jour- 


78  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

neys  whither  his  feet  would  go,  liis  mouth  filled  with 
glad  tidings  to  the  people  of  the  Illinois  and  the 
river  Mississippi. 

Long,  as  men  count  it,  must  he  yet  wait.  Never 
theless,  humbly  but  fervently  does  he  pray  that,  if  it 
be  Heaven's  will,  he  may  go  whither  his  heart  leads. 
iAt  last,  on  the  eve  of  the  festival  of  the  Immaculate 
Conception,  the  feast  of  all  the  year  to  him,  a  canoe 
from  Canada  comes  up  the  glassy  plain.  Its  occu 
pant  is  the  Lieutenant  Joliet,  an  old  fur-trader,  and 
he  brings  important  letters  to  Father  Marquette. 

The  minister  of  France  has  written  to  Talon,  Inten- 
dant  of  Canada,  to  cause  the  South  Sea  to  be  disco 
vered.  This  was  the  vision  of  the  time,  as  the  short 
route  to  China  and  the  East  is  of  ours.  Then,  they 
thought  a  river  might  bear  them  on  its  brimming 
flood  to  the  South  Sea ;  now,  we  opine  the  iron  road 
will  take  us  thither.  M.  de  Talon,  the  retiring  gov 
ernor,  suggests  to  Frontenac,  the  newly  appointed, 
that  Joliet  is  the  best  man  for  the  purpose,  and  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities  appoint  Father  Marquette. 
Here  are  the  letters.  The  winter  is  spent  at  Mackinaw 
in  preparation.  "With  crowds  of  Indians  around  them, 
the  trader  and  the  priest,  kneeling  on  the  ground, 
drew  maps  of  such  countries  as  the  savages  knew, 
lying  toward  the  setting  sun.  After  much  study  and 
prayer,  with  great  hopes,  yet  lowly  hearts,  our  friends 
set  out  for  their  long  journey  in  the  spring  of  1673. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  79 

Across  the  lake  to  Green  Bay ;  then  to  the  head  of 
Fox  River,  where  is  an  Indian  village,  in  the  centre 
of  which  stands  a  great  cross  planted  by  the  zeal  of 
Allouez,  and  crowned  by  the  Indians  with  wampum 
and  peltries  of  the  choicest  kind.  The  Indians,  with 
hearts  warmed  toward  the  French,  throng  around 
Marquette  and  Joliet  with  proffers  of  hospitality  and 
kindness  ;  but  when  told  the  object  of  their  expedition, 
their  faces  express  great  solicitude,  and  their  mouths 
are  filled  with  dismal  tales  of  the  dangers  of  the  way. 
The  land  of  the  Great  River  and  the  vast  stream 
itself  are  filled  with  frightful  monsters  and  terrible 
men.  Every  effort  was  made  to  dissuade  the  good 
father  and  his  party  from  their  mad  enterprise.  But 
they  were  not  to  be  moved.  A  party  of  Indians 
helped  them  across  the  portage  to  the  Wisconsin 
River,  wrhere,  launching  their  canoe,  they  were  quit 
ted  by  their  guides,  commended  their  way  to  God, 
and  committed  themselves  to  the  stream  of  the  sky- 
colored  water.  Floating  upon  its  tranquil  bosom 
seven  days,  they  passed  through  a  country  of  marvel 
lous  beauty  and  fertility.  It  was  the  month  of  June, 
and  Nature  had  donned  her  gayest  colors.  Yines 
clambered  among  the  trees.  Sometimes  from  a  bold 
bank  the  grassy  plain  stretched  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  reach,  without  a  mound  or  grove  to  obstruct 
the  view — the  green  land  at  last  melting  into  the 
blue-rimmed  horizon.  Then  the  bottom  land  meeting 


80  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

tliem  with  verdant  freshness  at  the  river's  edge  was 
terminated  ere  long  in  a  noble  bluff,  whose  sides  and 
summit  were  crowned  with  stately  trunks  and  branch 
ing  foliage,  casting  lines  of  grateful  shadow  on  the 
sward.  The  unflecked  blue  above  them  painted 
itself  in  the  flood,  seeming  to  create  an  azure  vault 
beneath  their  birch  pirogue.  The  breezy  stillness 
was  only  broken  by  the  river's  lapse,  the  paddle's  dip, 
or  their  own  low  murmurs  of  delight  at  the  fairy-land 
scene  around  them.  Thus  for  a  week  they  floated, 
until,  on  June  17th,  their  placid  stream  swept  them 
with  its  parting  wave  into  the  swifter  current  of  the 
Great  River,  whose  affluence  makes  glad  a  continent. 
Streams  with  broader  openings  to  the  sea  there  are, 
with  grander  historic  associations,  with  more  roman 
tic  memories  thronging  their  banks ;  but  what  one  of 
all  earth's  watercourses  can  vie  with  this  in  its  majes 
tic  appeal  to  the  imagination  and  the  hope  of  man 
kind  ?  Oh,  James  Marquette,  can  the  rivers  of  thy 
goodly  land  of  France,  the  Oise,  by  whose  sedgy 
marge  thy  childish  feet  so  often  wandered,  the  Seine, 
traversing  the  great  town  of  Paris,  the  Rhone,  "  the 
arrowy  Rhone,"  the  Rhine,  burdened  with  its  pur 
ple  hills  clad  in  vines  and  crowned  with  castles — 
can  any  bear  comparison  with  this  ?  They  flow 
through  the  dreamy  lands  of  the  Past ;  its  realms 
are  the  Future's.  Like  some  great  royal  conqueror 
it  leaps  from  its  almost  unnoted  birth-place,  Itasca 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  81 

Lake,  rushes  forward  to  exact  the  tribute  brought 
from  far  provinces,  east  and  west,  and  after  its  tri 
umphal  procession  of  two  thousand  five  hundred 
miles,  freely  receiving,  freely  giving  in  many  a  belt 
ing  zone,  hurls  broad  and  far  its  accumulated  trea 
sure,  that  thereby  a  world  may  be  enriched. 

A  great  silent  joy  is  in  Harquette's  heart,  and  as 
grateful  tears  wet  his  eyes,  he  offers  a  fervent  thanks 
giving  that  he  has  been  permitted  to  look  upon  this 
wonder.  The  devout  spirit  thinks  of  the  greatest  birth 
of  Time,  and  in  commemoration  of  it  he  names  the 
river  "  The  Conception."  This  is  the  17th  June, 
1673. 

For  eight  days  they  glided  over  the  crystal  pave 
ment  between  shores  widening  to  the  distance  of  a 
half  league,  and  then  approaching  in  rocky  bluffs,  as 
if  they  were  the  towers  and  battlements  of  hostile 
cities,  to  within  a  few  hundred  yards.  In  vernal  pas 
ture  lands  they  beheld  the  moose  and  elk  and  deer 
cropping  the  herbage  ;  and  lower  down  vast  herds  of 
buffalo  grazed  in  the  meadows,  and  the  woods  were 
filled  with  flocks  of  wild  turkeys.  But  for  fifteen  days 
they  had  not  come  in  sight  of  trace  or  habitation  of 
human  beings.  At  length  they  discern  a  well- 
marked  trail  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river,  and  land 
to  seek  the  men  whose  feet  have  left  this  trace.  Si 
lently,  with  minds  moved  alternately  by  hopes  and 

fears,  Marquette  and  Joliet  proceed  six  miles,  when 

4* 


.82  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

they  descry  three  Indian  villages.  Uttering  a  loud 
cry,  they  rapidly  approach  them.  A  company  of  old 
men  came  forth  to  meet  them,  and  when  asked  by 
Marquette  who  they  are,  replied,  "  we  are  Illinois.'' 
Great  was  the  good  father's  joy.  He  explained  who 
he  and  his  companion  were ;  whereupon  they  were 
joyfully  welcomed  with  the  peace-pipe.  Then  fol 
lowed  a  six  days'  feast.  Heartily  did  the  simple  natives 
urge  the  Frenchmen  to  tarry  with  them.  But  their 
task  was  not  half  performed,  and  they  must  up  and 
away.  Taking  an  affectionate  leave  of  their  kind 
hosts,  they  were  escorted  to  their  canoe  and  pre 
sented  with  a  calumet  magnificently  adorned,  than 
which  no  more  valuable  gift  could  have  been  made 
them. 

Passing  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois,  our  voyagers 
sighted  the  Piasau  bluff,  where  frightful  monsters  were 
traced  high  up  on  stupendous  rocks,  and  the  relics  of  a 
rude  limning  are  still  to  be  seen.  Soon  after  there 
arose  upon  the  air  a  roar  as  from  a  distant  cataract. 
As  t^y  drew  nearer  they  found  it  to  be  the  rush  of 
the  Pekitanonie  (the  muddy  river,  as  the  Algonquins 
had  named  the  Missouri),  which  rushed  like  some 
untamed  monster  upon  the  peaceful  Mississippi,  hurl 
ing  it  with  tremendous  violence  upon  the  opposite 
shore.  In  the  boiling  muddy  tide,  seething  and 
tumultuous,  were  borne  great  trees  which  it  had 
uprooted  in  its  wild  career.  Already  had  the  Father 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  83 

heard  of  a  western  river  which  flowed  downward  to 
the  sea,  and  by  this  one,  he  hoped  some  day  to  reach 
it.  'Now  his  course  was  southward.  Passing  an 
eddy  which  the  natives  held  to  be  a  demon,  they 
reached  the  Ohio,  then  called  the  Oubachi  or  river  of 
the  Shawn ees.  Still  descending,  they  came  to  the 
warm  lands  of  the  cane,  where  the  mosquitoes 
seemed  to  be  holding  a  carnival.  Wrapping  them 
selves  in  their  sails  as  a  protection  against  the  pesti 
ferous  insects,  they  were  after  a  time  hailed  from  the 
shore  by  a  party  of  wild  wanderers,  who  were  armed 
with  guns  and  knives,  obtained  they  said  by  trading 
with  Christians  to  the  eastward.  Further  on  they 
were  threatened  by  a  hostile  demonstration  from  a 
large  party  of  natives,  who  advanced  with  menaces 
and  brandished  arms  to  meet  them.  It  was  a  trying 
moment.  But  Marquette  was  equal  to  it.  Invoking 
the  protection  of  the  Virgin  Mother,  he  calmly  stood 
in  the  prow  of  his  bark,  holding  aloft  the  calumet. 
It  saved  their  lives.  The  warriors  were  pacified, 
received  the  strangers  kindly,  and  entertained  ^hem 
with  great  courtesy.  This  was  about  the  thirty- 
third  parallel  of  latitude.  Below  this  our  little  party 
only  ventured  ten  leagues.  They  learned  that  the 
sea  was  ten  days  sail  to  the  south ;  and  that  there 
were  many  tribes  near  it,  who  traded  with  Europeans 
and  who  were  at  w^ar  among  themselves.  Satisfying 
themselves  that  the  river  emptied  between  Florida 


84:  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

and  Tampico,  and  fearing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
Spaniards,  they  determined  to  return.  The  main 
object  of  the  enterprise  was  accomplished.  Until 
this  time  it  had  been  a  vexed  question  whether  the 
great  river  emptied  into  the  sea  near  Virginia,  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  or  into  that  of  California.  Hav 
ing  discovered  the  river,  learned  the  location  of  its 
mouth  and  above  all  else  in  the  mind  of  the  good 
Marquette,  preached  the  religion  of  the  Cross  to  the 
heathen,  opening  the  way  for  other  missionaries,  they 
reascended  to  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois,  to  the  head 
of  which  they  went,  passing  through  the  most  delec 
table  land  they  had  yet  looked  upon.  Here 
they  were  met  by  the  Kaskaskias,  who  hailed  them 
with  great  joy,  and  conducted  them  in  triumph 
across  the  portage  to  the  Lake ;  for  Marquette  pro 
mised  to  return  and  preach  to  them. 

Four  months  from  the  time  of  setting  out,  they 
reached  the  mission  of  St.  Francis  Xavier ;  and 
thus  these  seven  men — five  boatmen  bore  them 
company — performed  one  of  the  notable  feats  of 
history.  The  following  spring  Joliet  embarked  for 
Quebec,  but  as  he  was  attempting  to  shoot  a  rapid 
in  the  St.  Lawrence,  not  far  from  his  destination,  his 
canoe  npset,  causing  the  loss  of  his  journal  and  maps 
and  nearly  of  his  life.  We  catch  one  more  look  at 
this  worthy  on  the  island  of  Anticosti,  in  the  Gulf 
of  St.  Lawrence,  which  was  granted  him  for  his  ser- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  85 

vices;  and  then  the  shadow  Joliet  joins  his  fellow 
shades  and  vanishes  forever. 

Marquette,  without  thought  of  worldly  fame  or 
honors,  or  reward  of  any  kind,  studies  only  how  he 
may  recruit  his  health,  which  has  been  sadly  shat 
tered,  and  thereby  be  able  to  redeem  his  pledge  to 
the  Kaskaskias.  This  is  his  only  earthly  wish — to 
preach  to  his  beloved  Illinois.  He  shall  not  die 
until  it  be  fulfilled. 

Spending  the  winter  of  1674-5  near  Chicago,  in 
great  feebleness,  suffering  from  cold  and  want,  but 
cheered  by  a  peaceful,  loving  heart,  he  is  able  to 
reach  his  Indians  in  the  spring,  and  solemnize  among 
them  the  Easter  ceremonies.  But  his  old  malady 
returns.  Nothing  is  left  him  now  but  to  die.  And 
with  the  mighty  instinct  of  the  human  heart,  long 
ing  to  breathe  his  last  among  his  brethren,  he  bids 
farewell  to  his  sorrowing  neophytes,  and  takes  his 
way  to  Mackinaw.  His  three  faithful  boatmen 
accompany  him,  tending  him  with  all  gentle  care, 
lifting  him  in  and  out  of  the  canoe,  for  the  wasted 
man  is  too  weak  to  walk.  As  they  reach  the  outlet 
of  a  small  stream  in  Michigan,  which  now  bears  his 
name,  he  can  go  no  further.  A  rude  lodge  is  reared 
on  the  edge  of  the  stream,  with  an  altar  before  which 
the  dying  saint  is  laid.  He  calmly  gives  directions 
to  his  sobbing  attendants  concerning  his  burial. 
They  take  his  crucifix  from  the  breast,  where  it  has 


86  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

lain  through,  all  these  years  of  self  renouncing  toils, 
and  hold  it  up  before  him.  His  face  glows  with  a 
holy  transport,  as  if  it  were  an  angel's ;  one  word, 
"  Jesus,"  is  on  his  lips,  and  then — he  is  dead. 

'Tis  well.  Nine  years  of  untiring  labor  for  the  sal 
vation  of  the  heathen,  a  life  of  perfect  self-abnega 
tion,  a  discovery  rivalling  in  magnificence  any  ever 
made,  are  thus  terminated  by  a  lonely  death  on  a 
desolate  shore.  Thus  died  Xavier,  his  elected  model, 
after  living  as  he  had  lived.  Two  years  after,  in 
167T,  a  flotilla  of  canoes  from  Mackinaw  came  to 
that  dark  wood  at  the  mouth  of  the  little  river ;  the 
Indians  among  whom  he  had  long  and  faithfully 
labored  exhumed  his  remains  and  bore  them  to  Mac 
kinaw.  A  fleet  advancing  from  the  shore  met  them, 
with  tearful  eyes,  and  amid  the  slow  solemn  strains 
of  "  De  Profundis,"  chanted  by  priests  and  Indians, 
the  remains  were  borne  to  the  shore  and  finally  depo 
sited  beneath  the  church,  on  whose  site  he  had  BO 
often  led  their  worship. 

For  many  a  long  year  after,  when  the  forest 
rangers  abroad  upon  the  stormy  lake  were  endan 
gered  by  sudden  tempest  or  wild  billows,  their 
piteous  cries  were  heard,  and  Marquette  was  the 
name  they  cried,  asking  his  intercession,  as  of  an  all- 
powerful  and  undoubted  saint. 

Important  as  his  discovery  was,  it  is  certain  that  it 
would  have  been  of  slight  advantage  to  France,  but 


OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  87 

for  the  exertions  of  a  young  adventurer,  whose  story 
we  have  next  to  trace. 

When  Joliet  was  on  his  way  to  Quebec,  after  quit 
ting  Marquette,  he  stopped  at  Fort  Frontenac,  on 
Lake  Ontario,  where  the  town  of  Kingston  now 
stands.  The  commandant  of  this  post  drank  in  with 
greedy  ears  the  trader's  recital  of  his  voyage.  He 
was  one  of  the  few  that  ever  saw  the  Journal  and 
map  of  Joliet.  The  trader  went  his  way  and  the 
young  soldier  of  fortune  remained  to  dream  in  the 
wilderness  and  work  his  way  to  renown. 

Bobert  Cavelier  de  la  Salle  was  born  of  an  ancient 
and  honorable  family  in  Rouen.  Renouncing  his 
patrimony,  or  in  some  way  deprived  of  it  by  unjust 
laws,  he  became  a  Jesuit,  and  received  in  a  college 
of  that  order  a  thorough  education.  But  finding  the 
life  of  a  priest  incompatible  with  his  tastes,  he 
quitted  the  fraternity,  receiving  high  testimonials  of 
capacity  and  fidelity,  and  embarked  as  an  adventurer 
for  Canada,  where  he  arrived  between  1665  and  1670. 
Here  the  force  of  his  character  soon  displayed  itself 
by  his  successful  prosecution  of  various  difficult 
enterprises.  In  1674  we  find  him  commanding  at 
the  fort  named  in  honor  of  Frontenac,  governor  of 
the  province.  The  confidence  of  this  functionary  he 
seems  to  have  completely  gained.  The  next  year  he 
visited  France  with  strong  recommendations  from 
the  governor  to  the  ministry.  Colbert  was  then  at 


88  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

the  head  of  the  cabinet  of  Louis  XIY.  This  great 
statesman  listened  attentively  to  the  plans  of  the 
young  soldier,  and  induced  his  royal  master  to  grant 
his  request.  To  La  Salle  was  accordingly  given  a 
title  of  nobility,  a  monopoly  in  the  fur-trade  around 
Lake  Ontario,  the  command  and  ownership  of  Fort 
Frontenac,  and  the  lands  in  its  neighborhood,  on 
condition  of  his  erecting  a  stone  fortress,  and  estab 
lishing  a  mission — for  to  overawe  and  convert  the 
Iroquois,  was  the  double  object  of  the  establishment. 
While  engaged  in  this  undertaking,  he  showed  him 
self  an  able  politician,  by  his  skillful  management  of 
the  tribes  around  him.  On  the  completion  of  his 
task,  he  found  himself  ruined.  To  while  away  the 
long  winter  evenings  in  his  frontier  post,  and  to  ban 
ish  the  demon  of  anxiety,  he  betook  himself  to  the 
study  of  the  Spanish  accounts  of  America  and  its  con 
quest.  His  mind  now  reverted  to  the  narrative 
of  Joliet,  little  heeded  at  the  time,  and  he  seems  to 
have  been  the  first  to  identify  the  river  which  De 
Soto  had  discovered,  with  that  explored  by  Mar- 
quette.  To  the  Mississippi  and  its  valley,  the  heart 
of  our  adventurer  now  turned  in  his  extremity. 
There  his  failure  might  be  retrieved,  and  fortune  be 
secured.  If  he  can  obtain  a  monopoly  of  the  fur- 
trade  in  that  vast  region,  extend  a  line  of  posts  from 
Canada  to  the  Gulf,  found  a  colony  at  the  mouth  of 
the  great  river,  and  ship  his  peltries  thence  to 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  89 

France,  what  easier  ?  Gigantic  enterprise,  you  will 
say.  But  what  can  not  one  strong  will  do  ? 

Hastening  again  to  France  in  16TT,  he  readily 
obtained,  through  the  friendship  of  the  great  Colbert, 
and  of  his  son,  the  Duke  de  Seignelai,  minister  of  the 
marine,  the  sanction  and  authority  he  needed  from 
the  crown.  His  patent  confirmed  the  previous  one, 
empowered  him  to  construct  forts  wherever  necessary 
in  the  western  part  of  New  France,  and  gave  him  a 
vast  monopoly  of  the  fur-trade,  including,  with  some 
exceptions,  the  whole  Mississippi  valley.  Recruiting 
a  company  of  mechanics  and  mariners,  he  starts  a 
a  third  time  for  Canada,  and  September  of  the  next 
year,  1678,  found  him  once  more  at  his  seigniory  of 
Fort  Frontenac,  on  Lake  Ontario,  with  sixty  men, 
prepared  and  resolved  to  carry  out  his  great  scheme 
of  discovery,  trade  and  settlement.  He  brought  with 
him  one  Henry  de  Tonty  as  his  lieutenant.  This 
Tonty,  said  to  have  been  the  son  of  the  inventor  of 
those  life  insurance  schemes  called  Tontines,  was  an 
Italian,  who  had  been  highly  recommended  to  La 
Salle  by  a  great  noble  of  the  French  court ;  and  he 
thenceforth  ever  proved  himself  an  unswerving  ally, 
a  faithful  and  able  officer,  and  a  trusty  friend.  He 
had  been  a  soldier  seven  years  in  the  French  wars, 
and  having  lost  a  hand  by  a  grenade  in  Sicily,  had 
supplied  its  place  with  a  rude  claw  of  iron. 

With  his  vast  plans  revolving  in  his  mind,  shaping 


90  PIOXEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

out  the  conception  of  that  belt  of  forts  and  missions 
and  settlements  twelve  hundred  miles  long,  which 
was  at  once  to  secure  the  great  continent  for  the 
Grand  Monarch,  to  gird  in  and  overawe  the  English 
and  Spanish  seaboards,' to  gather  the  Indians  into 
the  Catholic  church,  and  to  give  himself  unbounded 
riches  and  a  mighty  lordship — with  all  these  magni 
ficent  dreams  in  his  soul,  La  Salle  nevertheless  applied 
himself  diligently  to  the  details  and  drudgery  of  their 
small  mercantile  beginnings,  sending  forward  traders 
to  gather  furs,  and  organizing  matters  at  and  about 
the  Fort. 

His  design  was  to  build  a  vessel  above  Niagara,  to 
sail  in  it  as  far  on  his  way  as  the  upper  lakes  would 
admit,  and  then  to  cross  by  land  to  the  Mississippi, 
and  proceed  down  the  great  river  in  another  vessel. 
He  therefore  sent  Tonty  in  a  small  craft  of  ten  tons 
which  had  been  built  at  Fort  Frontenac  the  year 
before,  with  workmen,  tools,  materials,  and  provisions, 
to  select  a  proper  spot  for  building  his  brigantine,  and 
also  for  erecting  a  fort. 

They  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Niagara  River  in 
the  beginning  of  January,  1679,  and  leaving  their 
vessel  and  going  round  the  falls,  chose  their  dock 
yard  ;  but  finding  the  Indians  dissatisfied  with  the 
plan  of  erecting  a  fort,  they  pacified  them,  not  with 
out  difficulty,  and  confined  themselves  to  palisading 
the  cabins  in  which  they  passed  the  winter. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  91 

La  Salle  embarked  from  Fort  Frontenac,  a  short 
time  after  their  departure,  in  another  small  vessel  with 
merchandise,  provisions,  and  ringing  for  the  new  ship, 
delaying,  as  he  came,  to  conciliate  the  Senecas.  He 
reached  Niagara  on  the  20th  of  January ;  and  already 
there  began  to  lower  over  him  the  dark  clouds  of  that 
long  series  of  misfortunes  against  which  he  bore  up 
for  so  many  years,  with  such  heroic  but  unsuccessful 
strength  and  resolution.  All  at  once  he  was  assaulted 
with  all  the  evils  which  afterward  pursued  him ;  timi 
dity  or  dislike  or  senseless  obstinacy  in  his  men,  bitter 
and  unscrupulous  enmity  from  the  traders  with  whom 
his  monopoly  interfered,  and  rapacious  severity  from 
his  creditors.  The  two  pilots  of  his  vessel  quarrelled 
about  the  route,  and  wrecked  her  on  the  south  shore 
of  Lake  Ontario.  The  anchors  and  the  rigging  were 
secured  with  great  difficulty;  but  the  goods  and  pro 
visions  were  lost.  The  Indian  traders  too,  with  whom 
his  monopoly  interfered,  and  those  connected  with 
them  in  business,  had  begun  to  poison  the  minds  of  the 
Indians,  by  representing  that  his  forts  and  ships  were 
intended,  not  for  trade,  but  to  subdue  the  tribes. 

But  La  Salle,  with  the  able  diplomacy  of  the 
French,  conciliated  the  Senecas  in  his  one  short  visit. 
Deferring  his  fort  at  Niagara  to  please  them,  and 
urging  on  his  main  expedition  to  the  West,  he  at  once 
chose,  from  among  the  sites  which  had  been  explored 
for  a  dock-yard,  a  locality  about  six  miles  above  the 


92  PIONEERS,    PREACHEKS   AND   PEOPLE 

falls,  on  the  English  side,  at  the  mouth  of  a  creek,  and 
himself  drove  the  first  bolt  in  the  frame  of  his  in 
tended  vessel,  a  week  after  his  arrival.  Then,  leav 
ing  Tonty  in  charge  of  the  ship-building,  he  hastened 
back  again  to  Fort  Frontenac  by  land,  almost  three 
hundred  miles  through  snowy  forests,  with  a  bag 
of  parched  corn  to  eat,  and  with  two  men  and  a  boy 
as  guides  and  baggage-train.  His  errand  now  was  to 
complete  his  arrangements  for  raising  money,  and  for 
the-  management  of  his  property  during  his  absence. 
For  nearly  six  months  he  was  thus  industriously  at 
work  in  preparation,  and  struggling  against  the  busy 
and  unscrupulous  intrigues  of  his  enemies.  His 
creditors  too,  in  Montreal  and  Quebec,  frightened  at 
the  stories  which  they  heard  of  his  wild  schemes  and 
monstrous  expenses,  seized  and  sold  at  ruinous  sacri 
fice  whatever  of  his  property  they  could  lay  hands  on. 
But  he  could  not  stop  to  set  these  things  right — 
that  wrould  have  been  precisely  what  his  enemies 
designed  ;  so  letting  his  peltries  and  merchandise  go, 
and  making  a  farewell  grant  out  of  his  estate  at  Fort 
Frontenac  to  the  Franciscans,  of  a  hundred  and  eigh 
teen  acres  of  land — he  had  already  erected  for  them 
dwellings  and  a  chapel — he  set  off  again  for  Niagara, 
hearing  that  his  new  ship  was  launched  and  ready. 
Coasting  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake  in  a  canoe,  he 
renewed  his  friendship  with  the  Indians  by  the  way. 
He  found  his  vessel  already  launched,  and  towed  up 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  93 

the  river  to  within  a  mile  or  two  of  Lake  Erie.  She 
was  named  the  Griffin,  was  of  sixty  tons  burden, 
armed  with  two  brass  guns  and  three  arquebuses,  and 
adorned  with  a  wooden  griffin  for  a  figure-head. 

After  some  delay  the  expedition,  of  thirty-four 
souls,  including  three  Franciscan  missionaries,  em 
barked  on  the  Yth  of  August,  1679,  amid  shouts  and 
salvoes  of  artillery,  upon  the  untried  waters  of  Lake 
Erie,  westward  bound.  They  steered  boldly  into  the 
unknown  depths  of  the  lake,  confident  in  their  com 
passes  and  in  the  skill  of  their  pilot ;  crossed  the  lake 
in  less  than  three  days  ;  threaded  the  shallows  of  the 
straits  of  Detroit  and  St.  Olair,  and  the  lake  between 
them,  to  which  they  gave  its  present  name  in  honor 
of  the  day  ;  then  entered  the  broad  expanse  of  Lake 
Huron.  In  crossing  this,  they  encountered  a  tempest 
so  terrible  that  they  gave  themselves  up  for  lost,  La 
Salle  himself  even  crying  out  that  they  were  undone, 
and  offering  fervent  vows  to  the  great  St.  Anthony 
of  Padua,  in  case  they  should  escape  alive.  Only 
the  tough  old  sea-dog  of  a  pilot  would  neither  fear 
nor  pray,  but,  Hennepin  says,  "  did  nothing  all  that 
while  but  curse  and  swear  against  M.  de  la  Salle, 
who  had  brought  him  thither  to  make  him  perish  in 
a  nasty  lake,  and  lose  the  glory  he  had  acquired  by 
his  long  and  happy  navigation  on  the  ocean."  They 
escaped,  however,  and  arrived  safe  at  Mackinaw. 

Here  La  Salle  found  that  the  influence  of  his  ene- 


94  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

mies,  the  traders,  had  gone  before  him.  They  had 
made  the  Indians  believe  that  he  intended  both 
to  restrict  to  himself  all  trade  in  skins,  and  also 
to  subject  them  to  the  crown  of  France;  and  they 
received  him  coldly  and  suspiciously,  though  with 
ceremonious  politeness.  They  had  also  tampered 
with  his  advanced  guard,  most  of  whom  had  been 
indolent  and  unfaithful  in  their  task  of  gatheriug  furs 
and  provisions.  Still,  the  energetic  leader  was  not  to 
be  diverted  from  his  purpose.  He  left  his  faithful 
lieutenant,  Tonty,  to  collect  some  of  the  deserters,  and 
himself  pushed  on  again  in  the  Griffin  for  Green  Bay. 
At  the  entrance  of  this  arm  of  Lake  Michigan,  on  a 
small  island  occupied  by  Pottawatornie  Indians,  he 
found  some  of  his  missing  fur-traders,  with  great 
store  of  peltries,  the  proceeds  of  their  barter  with  the 
Indians. 

La  Salle  here  takes  a  sudden  and  singular  resolu 
tion  ;  and  one  not  pleasing  to  his  men.  But  he  is  not 
wont  to  ask  counsel  at  their  hands,  or  indeed  at  the 
hands  of  any.  Of  few  words,  and  of  reserved  and 
even  harsh,  manners,  he  evolves  his  plans  in  silence 
and  alone  within  his  own  soul,  and  sets  himself  to 
accomplish  them  with  a  will  seemingly  incapable  of 
diversion  or  discouragement ;  but  he  asks  no  man's 
advice,  "  talks  things  over "  with  no  one ;  only 
resolves,  and  then  orders.  Strange  character  for  a 
Frenchman — and  not  only  strange,  but  unfortunate. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  95 

at  least  so  far  as  popularity  was  important  to  him. 
For  a  chief  impediment  to  his  plans,  and  the  cause 
of  his  own  untimely  end,  was  the  insubordination 
and  enmity  of  his  own  men.  In  truth,  there  seems 
to  have  been  not  one  faithful  and  thoroughgoing 
helper  among  them  all,  except  Henry  de  Tonty  the 
iron-handed  Italian,  and  one  poor  Indian  of  some 
distant  eastern  tribe,  called  Nika,  a  hunter  of  exqui 
site  skill,  who  followed  his  fortune  hither  and  thither 
as  closely  and  steadily  as  a  dog,  often  the  sole  sup 
port  of  La  Salle  himself  and  all  his  party  for  days 
and  days  together,  and  finally  murdered  with  his  mas 
ter,  for  his  faithfulness  to  him.  Peace  to  the  poor 
forgotten  shade  of  that  brave  and  faithful  red  man  ! 

This  strange  resolution  was,  to  send  the  Griffin, 
laden  with  the  furs  at  Green  Bay  and  what  others 
could  be  gathered  on  the  road,  back  again  to 
Niagara,  that  her  cargo  might  pay  his  debts.  All 
the  rest  would  much  prefer  the  stanch  and  hitherto 
fortunate  brigantine,  for  the  remainder  of  the  peril 
ous  navigation  through  Lake  Michigan,  to  the  frail 
slender  canoes,  exposed  to  furious  tempests  and 
thievish  or  hostile  savages.  But  none  thinks  it  best 
to  remonstrate  ;  and  with  a  prosperous  westerly  wind, 
the  Griffin  sets  sail  on  the  18th  of  July,  manned  with 
five  men  and  the  swearing  unterrified  pilot,  firing  a 
farewell  gun  as  she  departs. 

She  was  never  heard  of  more.     Somewhere  in  the 


96  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

depths  of  the  north  end  of  Lake  Michigan,  between 
Green  Bay  and  Mackinaw,  her  decayed  timbers,  and 
the  rusty  relics  of  the  "  two  brass  guns  and  three 
arquebuses,"  her  vaunted  armament,  yet  repose. 
All  else  must  long  since  have  disappeared.  Father 
Hennepin,  with  unclerical,  careless  disregard  for  the 
six  unfortunate  souls,  her  ship's  company,  dismisses 
the  subject  by  saying,  "  This  was.a  great  loss  for  M. 
de  la  Salle  and  other  adventurers,  for  that  ship  with 
its  cargo  cost  above  sixty  thousand  livres," — twelve 
thousand  dollars. 

But  La  Salle,  hopeful  and  cheery,  as  trusting  in 
speedy  freedom  from  debts  behind,  and  speedy  glory 
of  great  discoveries  before,  now  pushes  on  southward 
in  four  canoes,  burdened  disproportionately  with 
weighty  property,  even  including  a  blacksmith's 
forge,  and  with  a  party  now  reduced  by  detachment 
and  desertion,  to  fourteen.  After  a  most  toilsome 
and  dangerous  journey  along  the  western  side  of  the 
lake,  sometimes  entertained  generously  by  friendly 
Indians,  once  embroiled  with  a  roving  squad  of 
Outagamies  or  Foxes  on  a  thieving  expedition,  on 
the  first  of  November  they  safely  entered  the 
Miami  River,  now  called  the  St.  Josephs,  the 
appointed  rendezvous  for  Tonty  and  for  the  Griffin. 

All  that  winter  was  spent  in  waiting  for  the 
expected  comers.  The  men,  weary  of  living  by  the 
uncertain  fruits  of  the  chase,  dreading  the  winter 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  97 

and  its  famine,  dreading  the  dangers  of  this  vast 
unknown  region  into  which  they  were  to  be  led, 
murmured  and  complained,  and  desired  to  proceed 
into  the  Illinois  country,  wThere  there  was  corn.  But 
La  Salle  refused,  gave  them  good  reasons,  and  kept 
them  busy  in  building  Fort  Miamis  on  a  hill  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  while  he  sounded  and  staked  out 
the  channel,  and  sent  two  men  to  Mackinaw  to 
hasten  the  coming  of  his  ship. 

After  long  delay,  Tonty  appeared,  gladdening  the 
hearts  of  the  party  by  the  reinforcement  and  the 
two  canoe-loads  of  venison  he  brought,  but  also 
bringing  to  his  commander  the  heavy  tidings  that 
the  Griffin  had  not  been  heard  from.  La  Salle  had 
already  become  apprehensive  respecting  her,  since 
nearly  twice  the  time  had  elapsed  which  should  have 
brought  her  to  the  Miamis.  And  thus  disappeared 
a  large  part  of  his  means,  and  his  hopes  of  promptly 
paying  his  debts.  But  the  strong-hearted  man 
wasted  no  useless  grief  over  misfortunes  now  past. 
Delaying  yet  a  little  longer,  until  it  became  neces 
sary  to  depart  to  escape  from  the  winter,  the  expedi 
tion  left  Fort  Miamis  on  the  3d  of  December,  in 
eight  canoes,  leaving  instructions  for  the  captain  of 
the  Griffin,  in  letters  conspicuously  fixed  on  branches 
of  trees.  Ascending  the  Miami  about  seventy  miles, 
they  make  a  portage  across  to  the  head  of  the  Kan- 
kakee,  follow  that  slow  and  crooked  stream  through  a 

5 


98  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

hundred  miles  of  desolate  frozen  marsh,  then  emerge 
into  a  prairie  country,  and  after  two  hundred  miles 
more  of  voyaging,  enter  the  river  Illinois. 

Thus  they  navigate  southward,  descending  the  two 
rivers,  during  the  whole  of  December,  supplying 
themselves  with  corn  from  the  caches  of  a  large 
Indian  town  whose  inhabitants  had  departed  to  the 
hunt,  leaving  their  cabins  empty.  Floating  onward 
through  Lake  Peoria,  they  come  suddenly,  at  its 
southern  end,  into  the  midst  of  a  great  camp  of  the 
Illinois  tribe,  occupying  both  sides  of  the  river.  But, 
putting  on  a  bold  face,  and  forming  in  order  of  battle, 
the  brave  commander  of  the  little  band  meets  the 
Indians  as  their  superior  in  force,  and  only  holds  out 
the  calumet  of  peace  in  answer  to  their  signals ;  satis 
fies  them  for  the  abstraction  of  their  supplies  of  corn, 
explains  his  designs,  and  concludes  a  solemn  alliance. 

That  same  night  came  an  emissary  of  his  busy  foes 
the  private  traders,  a  Mascouten  chief  named  Monso, 
and  poisoned  the  minds  of  all  the  Illinois — a  fickle, 
cowardly,  suspicious,  thievish  and  lascivious  race — 
with  the  same  old  story  that  his  plan  was  to  exter 
minate  their  nation,  and  that  an  army  of  the  terrible 
Iroquois  would  soon  be  upon  them.  This  he  indus 
triously  told  to  one  and  another  all  night  long,  con 
firmed  the  tale  by  valuable  presents  of  knives  and 
hatchets  and  such  coveted  goods,  and  fled  away 
before  morning,  that  the  unsuspecting  Frenchman 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  99 

might  be  ruined  without  knowing  whence  came  the 
blow.  La  Salle  saw  at  once,  when  next  day  he  went 
among  his  savage  hosts,  that  their  yesterday's  jovial 
friendship  was  quite  changed  into  suspicion  and  fears. 
But  discovering  the  trick  by  means  of  an  Illinois 
chief  who  had  imbibed  a  strong  liking  for  him,  his 
frank  and  judicious  explanations  soon  dispersed  this 
threatening  cloud,  in  appearance  at  least.  Yet  the 
minds  of  the  Illinois  were  not  entirely  at  rest,  and  an 
eminent  chief,  one  Nikanape,  took  occasion,  at  a  great 
feast  which  he  gave  the  French,  in  along  speech  filled 
with  flaming  descriptions  of  terrible  savages  on  the 
land,  and  vast  monsters  and  hideous  whirlpools  in 
the  great  river,  to  dissuade  them  from  going  further. 
It  may  easily  be  supposed  that  the  steadfast  leader 
of  the  French  was  not  moved  by  this  savage  rhetoric, 
whose  plain  meaning  he  saw  clearly  to  be,  "  We  do 
not  want  you  travelling  about  our  country  at  all ;  so 
please  go  straight  back  by  the  way  you  came."  He 
calmly  rebuked  the  oratorical  Indian  for  the  veiled 
unfriendliness  of  his  purpose,  and  the  feast  proceeded. 
Yet  the  infection  worked  among  his  men,  as  usual, 
and  six  of  them,  including  two  sawyers  upon  whom 
he  depended  to  build  the  vessel  in  which  to  descend 
the  Mississippi,  ran  away,  like  faint  hearts  as  they 
were.  It  is  even  said  that  they  basely  planned 
a  cruel  death  for  their  bold  commander,  and  that  he 
only  escaped  the  effect  of  the  poison  they  gave  him, 


100  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

by  a  strong  dose  of  treacle^  a  sovereign  antidote  in 
that  day,  and  which,  as  well  as  orvietan,  another 
ancient  antidote,  La  Salle  seems  always  to  have  had 
in  his  medicine  chest. 

To  prevent  the  rest  from  further  dwelling  upon 
future  dangers,  he  explained  to  them  the  peril  of 
leaving  him  in  the  winter,  promised  that  those  who 
desired  it  should  be  permitted  and  aided  to  depart  in 
the  spring,  showed  them  how  unsafe  was  their  unde 
fended  condition,  and  proposed  to  build  another  fort. 
To  this  they  agreed,  and  he  at  once  laid  out  the 
ground,  and  employed  part  of  them  in  erecting  a 
stout  stockade,  and  the  rest  in  building  the  vessel  in 
which  he  proposed  to  descend  the  Great  Kiver. 
When  the  fort  was  completed,  and  it  only  remained 
to  give  it  a  name,  La  Salle  for  once  took  counsel  of 
his  sorrows.  He  remembered  the  virulent  pursuit  of 
the  revengeful  traders ;  the  disappearance  of  the 
Griffin,  with  its  rich  freight  of  furs,  and  its  richer 
freight  of  human  souls  ;  the  wasteful  seizure  of  his 
goods  by  the  creditors  at  Montreal  and  Quebec  ;  the 
long,  weary  journeys  to  and  fro  across  stormy  lakes 
and  wintry  forests;  the  base  desertions,  and  vile, 
murderous  schemes  of  coward  followers  ;  and  named 
his  little  stockade  Cr&vecceur,  "The  Fort  of  the 
Broken  Heart." 

But  this  first  and  last  access  of  discouragement  was 
8oon  repelled,  and  the  clear,  strong  mind  of  the  great 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  101 

discoverer  regained  its  steady  balance.  Having 
completed  the  bark  on  the  stocks  so  far  as  was  pos 
sible  without  the  rigging  and  other  materials  in  the 
Griffin,  and  having  given  up  hopes  of  seeing  her,  he 
recognizes  the  fact  that  his  means  for  proceeding  are 
exhausted,  and  quickly  and  quietly  prepares  for  an 
other  winter's  trip  to  Fort  Frontenac,  to  refit,  recruit, 
and  return.  He  sends  Father  Hennepin,  one  of  his 
Franciscans,  with  two  stout  French  canoe-men,  to 
explore  the  upper  Mississippi  during  his  own  absence ; 
takes  with  him  three  Frenchmen  and  his  faithful  In 
dian  hunter,  and  departing,  passes  over  the  twelve 
hundred  miles  between  Forts  Crevecoeur  and  Fronte 
nac,  taking  the  route  along  the  south  shore  of  lakes 
Ontario  and  Frie,  either  near  their  coasts  or  upon  the 
highlands  dividing  their  affluents  from  those  of  the 
Ohio,  deterred  now  no  more  than  before,  by  the  deep 
melting  snow  of  the  forests,  or  the  floods  and  floating 
ice  of  so  many  rivers.  Sending  word  back  to  Tonty 
to  build  another  fort  on  the  strong  site  afterward 
occupied  by  the  French,  Fort  St.  Louis,  and  even 
now  called  Rock  Fort,  on  a  bluff  two  hundred  feet 
above  the  Illinois  River,  he  disappeared  in  the  path 
less  woods  ;  and  neither  of  his  adventures  nor  of  his 
solitary  thoughts  during  the  weeks  of  that  long,  toil 
some  way,  have  we  any  record.  But  experienced 
woodcraft,  a  hardy  frame,  and  a  strong  will,  brought 
him  safely  through. 


102  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

Of  course,  misfortune  and  his  enemies  have  played 
into  each  other's  hands  and  against  him  all  the  time 
of  his  absence.  Besides  the  loss  of  the  Griffin,  he 
has  been  heavily  swindled  by  his  agents  in  trade  011 
Ontario ;  has  lost  a  whole  cargo  of  merchandise  in  the 
lower  St.  Lawrence  ;  several  valuable  canoe-loads  in 
the  rapids  above  Montreal ;  a  quantity  more  by  other 
employees,  who  stole  them  and  ran  away  to  the  Dutch 
at  "  Nouvelle  Jorck  ;"  and  still  another  large  quan 
tity  by  forced  sales  at  the  instance  of  creditors,  who 
had  heard  (or  wished  they  had)  that  he  and  all  his 
party  were  drowned. 

Penniless,  deeply  in  debt,  all  Canada  full  of  his 
enemies,  all  his  plans  crushed,  is  he  helpless,  too,  and 
will  he  succumb  and  disappear  from  Canada  and  from 
history  ?  Never !  He  has  still  one  powerful  and 
trusty  friend — Count  de  Frontenac,  the  governor ; 
and  one  more,  yet  more  powerful  and  more  trusty — 
himself.  With  the  aid  of  these  two  he  bestirs  him 
with  such  energy  and  success,  that  he  again  secures 
men  and  means,  and  only  varying  his  scheme  by 
giving  up  the  idea  of  navigating  the  Mississippi  in  a 
large  boat  or  brigantine,  and  trusting  to  canoes  in 
stead,  he  departs  again,  July  23d,  1680.  After  a  long 
journey,  delayed  by  contrary  winds  on  the  lakes,  he 
arrives,  by  way  of  Fort  Miami s,  at  the  chief  village 
of  the  Illinois.  It  is  burned  and  empty.  In  surprise, 
he  proceeds  to  the  site  where  he  had  directed  Tonty 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  103 

to  build  his  second  fort.  There  is  not  a  vestige  left 
of  human  labor  or  human  presence.  He  turns  about, 
without  going  further  down  the  river,  and  returns  to 
the  Miamis,  where  he  remains  during  that  winter, 
occupied  in  negotiating  peace  among  the  Indians. 
In  the  course  of  this  season  he  learns,  from  some 
wandering  Illinois,  a  sad  story  of  the  disasters  of 
their  nation,  but  gains  no  news  of  Tonty  or  his 
men. 

But  without  them,  his  party  is  not  large  enough  to 
proceed  down  the  Great  River.  In  the  end  of  May, 
1681,  therefore,  he  returns  again  toward  Canada  for 
further  reinforcements,  and  at  Mackinaw,  to  their 
mutual  surprise  and  joy,  finds  Tonty  and  his  men. 
They  exchange  the  stories  of  their  separate  experi 
ence.  Tonty  related  how  mutiny  had  obliged  him 
to  give  up  both  Fort  St.  Louis  and  Fort  Crevecceur, 
and  had  driven  him  to  take  shelter  with  the  Illinois ; 
how  an  Iroquois  army  had  invaded  and  scattered  that 
tribe,  and  destroyed  the  villages  ;  and  how,  after  long 
endeavors  to  avert  the  destructive  purposes  of  the 
savage  Iroquois,  he  and  his  few  men  had  been  forced 
to  flee  for  their  lives  to  Green  Bay,  some  scouting 
Kickapoos  murdering  Father  Gabriel  de  la  Eibourde 
on  the  road.  If  he  had  taken  the  south  road  at  Lake 
Dauphin,  instead  of  that  to  the  north,  Tonty  would 
have  met  his  commander,  on  his  last  outward  expe 
dition,  with  a  well  furnished  little  fleet  of  canoes. 


104:  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

Then  La  Salle,  with  a  steady  countenance,  as  in 
differently  as  if  they  had  been  the  mishaps  of 
another,  in  turn  related  a  still  longer  and  heavier  ca 
talogue  of  misfortunes  and  disappointments.  Father 
Meinbre  says,  in  admiration,  that  though  any  one 
but  he  would  have  renounced  the  enterprise,  he  was 
"  more  resolute  than  ever  to  continue  his  work  and 
complete  his  discovery." 

We  must  here  advert  for  a  moment  to  the  liar 
Hennepin,  who  had,  during  La  Salle's  absence,  made 
an  exploring  voyage  on  the  upper  Mississippi,  and 
endured  a  short  captivity  among  the  Indians.  From 
this  he  had  escaped,  and  a  few  weeks  after  La  Salle's 
meeting  with  Tonty  at  Mackinaw,  he  passed  that 
post,  made  the  best  of  his  way  to  Canada,  and  thence 
to  Europe,  where  he  afterward  published  an  account 
of  a  pretended  voyage  down  the  Great  Eiver,  in 
which  he  endeavored  to  rob  La  Salle  of  the  glory  of 
discovering  its  outlet. 

Nothing  could  be  done  at  Mackinaw  for  the  great 
object  of  the  persevering  La  Salle,  so  he  and  his 
party  soon  returned  to  Fort  Frontenac.  Here  he 
rearranged  all  his  finances,  selected  a  strong  body  of 
Frenchmen  and  of  New  England  Indians,  Abenakis 
or  Mohegans,  with  these  returned  to  Niagara,  and  in 
August,  1681,  embarked  thence  once  more  for  the 
mysterious  mouth  of  the  "Hidden  River,"  as  the 
Spaniards  named  it ;  at  last,  after  undaunted  and 


OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  105 

indescribable  exertions,  this  third  time  destined  to 
succeed. 

With  fifty-four  souls  in  all,  including  ten  Indian 
women  to  cook,  and  three  children,  the  expedition 
passed  from  the  Miamis  to  the  Chicago  Kiver,  up 
this  on  the  ice  to  the  portage,  down  the  Illinois  to 
Lake  Peoria,  and  thence  by  water,  the  river  being 
open,  toward  the  Mississippi.  They  swept  past  the 
Fort  of  the  Broken  Heart,  barely  delaying  to  look  in 
upon  the  garrison  now  reestablished  there,  and  press 
ing  forward  with  happier  auguries,  glided  down  a 
deserted  river — the  Indians  being  at  their  distant 
winter  hunting-grounds — and  on  the  6th  of  February, 
1682,  floated  upon  the  long-desired  stream,  which 
La  Salle  now  named  the  Colbert,  after  his  staunch 
patron,  the  great  French  statesman. 

They  swept  downward,  with  various  adventure; 
fishing  or  hunting  ;  holding  peaceful  intercourse  with 
many  a  savage  tribe  ;  erecting  a  splendid  cross,  bear 
ing  the  arms  of  France,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Ar 
kansas  River,  in  token  of  the  proprietorship  of  the 
French  king,  and  amid  the  ignorant  rejoicing  of  the 
savages,  who  took  the  ceremony  to  be  a  show  for 
their  amusement,  instead  of  a  formal  theft  of  their 
land,  and  after  their  departure  carefully  inclosed  with 
palisades  the  ornamented  cross. 

Onward  still;  past  the  sun-worshipping  Tensas, 
whose  ceremonies,  large  canoes,  and  profound  reve- 


106  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

rence  for  their  chiefs,  seemed  to  indicate  that  they 
were  of  kin  to  the  brave  and  interesting  tribe  of  the 
Natchez.  Onward  still,  past  the  Natchez  themselves; 
past  the  Koroas  and  the  Quinipissas,  and  sundry 
other  tribes ;  past  a  village  just  plundered,  and  ten 
anted  by  the  corpses  of  the  slain ;  and  now,  all  at 
once,  the  vast  stream  divides  before  them  into  three 
mighty  channels.  The  brave  commander's  heart 
beats  high,  for  he  must  be  near  the  southern  sea ; 
and  sending  detachments  down  the  eastern  and  mid 
dle  channels,  under  Tonty  and  Dautray,  he  himself 
pursues  the  western,  the  largest.  The  muddy  waves 
of -the  broad  flood  are  gradually  found  to  become 
brackish,  and  then  quite  salt ;  and  now  the  measure 
less  expanse  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  lies  wide  before 
them.  The  mouth  of  the  Great  River,  the  Hidden 
River,  is  found. 

Of  the  emotions  of  the  stern  and  lofty-minded  La 
Salle,  as  he  thus  floated  out  toward  the  goal  of  his 
vast  and  long-pursued  enterprise,  no  record  exists. 
Whatever  they  were,  his  high  and  resolved  features 
gave  small  trace  of  them ;  and  speedily  returning 
to  the  prosaic  duties  of  the  mere  discoverer,  he  spends 
one  day  in  exploring  and  sounding  the  river's  mouths 
and  the  neighboring  shores,  and  another  in  finding  a 
spot  dry  and  firm  enough,  amidst  those  dreary  ex 
panses  of  fat  alluvium,  all  overgrown  with  rank  sedge 
and  reeds,  to  afford  a  site  for  a  memorial  column  and 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  107 

its  attendant  cross,  tokens  of  the  empire  o£jGhrist, 
and  of  the  great  French  king.  "Henceforth,"  saith 
La  Salle,  "my  God  and  my  king  are  supreme  forever 
over  the  innumerable  souls  and  the  immeasurable 
lands  of  this  great  continent." 

Having  selected  a  suitable  place,  on  the  9th  of 
April,  1682,  La  Salle  draws  up  his  whole  party  un 
der  arms ;  they  sing  the  Te  Deum,  the  Exaudiat,  and 
the  Domine  salvum  fac  J^egem — thanking  God,  im 
ploring  his  continued  help  for  themselves,  and  then 
loyally  asking  it  for  their  king,  by  the  three  sonorous 
old  Latin  chants.  They  fire  a  formal  salute  of  mus 
ketry,  and  shout  Vive  le  JRoi  !  Then  the  column  is 
erected,  and  with  a  long  enumeration  of  nations,  and 
rivers,  and  lands,  he  formally  proclaims  that  all  the 
lands  and  waters  of  Louisiana,  "  along  the  River  Col 
bert  or  Mississippi,  and  rivers  which  discharge  them 
selves  therein,  from  its  source  beyond  the  country  of 
the  Kious  or  ISTadouessions,  and  this  with  their  con 
sent,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Motantees,  Illi 
nois,  Mesigameas,  Natchez,  and  Koroas,  as  far  as 
its  mouth  at  the  sea,"  are  henceforth  part  of  the 
realms  of  the  king  of  France.  And  he  demands  of 
Jacques  de  la  Metairie,  the  notary,  his  official  certifi 
cate  of  the  transaction.  The  scribe  draws  up  the  in 
strument,  and  it  is  signed  by  the  notary  himself, 
and  by  La  Salle,  Father  Zenobius  Membre",  the 
missionary,  Henry  de  Tonty,  and  the  other  French- 


108  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

men  of  the  party,  and  delivered  to  the  com 
mander. 

Then  they  erect  a  cross ,  bury  at  the  foot  of  the 
tree  to  which  it  is  attached  a  leaden  plate,  with  an 
inscription  commemorating  their  discovery  and  their 
claim  ;  chant  more  Latin  hymns  ,  shout  again  Vive  le 
Roi  /  and  thus  the  Mississippi  valley  is  made  French 
for  almost  a  century — until  the  peace  of  1763. 

But  they  are  hard  pressed  for  food ;  and  barely  de 
laying  to  finish  the  ceremony,  must  push  rapidly  up 
the  river.  This  they  do ;  and  after  a  combat  with 
the  Quinipissas — the  first  into  which  La  Salle  had 
ever  been  driven  with  the  Indians,  so  wise  and  skill- 
fill  had  been  all  his  actions  toward  them — and  after 
some  suffering  from  hunger,  the  party  proceeds  safely 
on  its  return.  At  Fort  Prudhomme,  however,  the  in 
trepid  chief  is  stricken  down  by  a  wasting  fever.  He 
sends  his  faithful  lieutenant,  Tonty,  with  an  account 
of  his  voyage  and  discovery,  to  Count  de  Frontenac, 
with  orders  to  return  at  once ;  and  himself  remains 
forty  days  on  his  sick-bed,  under  the  care  of  the  good 
priest  Father  Zenobius  Membre,  and  was  even  then 
so  worn  down  by  illness  that  it  was  almost  the  end  of 
September  before  he  reached  his  establishment  at 
the  Miamis. 

La  Salle  now  purposes  to  return  down  the  Missis 
sippi  during  the  next  spring,  and  to  establish  a  strong 
colony  near  its  mouth.  He  sends  Father  Zenobius  to 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  109 

France  with  full  accounts  of  his  doings  hitherto  ;  but 
for  nearly  a  year  he  is  occupied — probably,  for  he 
has  left  no  record  of  his  deeds — in  trading,  travelling, 
and  keeping  up  his  influence  and  connections  with 
the  Indians,  the  plan  of  the  colony  being  postponed 
or  modified  by  circumstances,  or,  more  probably,  by 
his  own  thoughts. 

For  during  the  long  months  of  that  sojourn  in  the 
wilderness,  the  scheme  of  his  Mississippi  colony  has 
grown  and  expanded  within  his  mind.  Twice  has  he 
proved  his  influence  upon  the  rich  and  magnificent 
government  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth.  Why  should 
he  not  a  third  time  look  to  a  mighty  empire  for  the 
assistance  he  needs,  rather  than  to  his  small  indivi 
dual  resources ;  and  cross  the  ocean  with  a  strong 
company  in  great  ships,  instead  of  boating  obscurely 
down  the  vast  wilderness  river  in  frail  canoes  ? 

He  resolves  to  try ;  and  leaving  the  Chevalier  de 
Tonty  his  financial  agent  and  lieutenant  command 
ing,  he  departs  down  the  St.  Lawrence,  takes  ship  at 
Quebec,  and  lands  at  Rochelle,  December  13th,  1683. 

As  usual,  he  find  that  his  enemies  have  been  ac 
tive,  and  that  fortune  has  aided  them.  His  munifi 
cent  patron,  Colbert,  is  dead.  De  la  Barre,  now  go 
vernor  of  Canada,  has  written  to  the  home  govern 
ment  that  La  Salle  stirs  up  Indian  wars ;  that  all  his 
tales  of  discoveries  are  lies ;  that  he  has  acted  the 
part  of  a  petty  tyrant  among  those  far-off  wilder- 


110  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

nesses,  with  a  small  band  of  vagabond  followers,  steal 
ing  and  fighting.  But  it  was  not  such  an  attack  as 
this  which  could  obstruct  La  Salle.  Aided  by  his 
friends,  Father  Zenobius  Membre,  and  Count  Fronte- 
nac,  now  returned  to  France,  by  the  inherited  pre 
possessions  of  Colbert's  son,  the  Duke  de  Seignelai, 
now  high  in  office,  and  by  his  own  inexhaustible  en 
ergy  and  strange  power  over  the  court,  he  goes 
straight  on  with  his  plans.  The  absurd  slanders  of 
the  spiteful  De  la  Barre  die  in  silence ;  and  the  au 
thority  and  means  now  confided  to  him  were  far 
greater  than  before. 

The  king  gives  him  a  free  gift  of  a  ship  of  six  guns, 
and  the  use  of  three  more,  a  thirty-six  gun  frigate,  a 
transport  of  three  hundred  tons,  and  a  ketch;  and 
furnishes  supplies,  sea  and  land  forces,  colonists  :  in 
short,  the  whole  personal  and  material  constituents 
of  a  colony.  And  not  only  has  La  Salle  the  supreme 
command  of  this  great  expedition,  but  territorial  ju 
risdiction  over  all  the  great  valley  whither  he  is 
bound,  and  over  all  colonies  established  therein. 

The  reputation  of  the  enterprise  and  its  leader 
draw  to  him  a  number  of  volunteers,  all  respectable, 
and  including  several  families,  a  brother  of  La  Salle's, 
who  was  a  priest,  two  of  his  nephews,  and  another 
relative,  also  a  priest. 

And  even  now,  at  this  very  moment,  when  the  im 
pregnable,  steady  energies  and  inexhaustible  wise 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  Ill 

perseverance  of  this  man  seem  at  last  to  have  brought 
him  to  a  point  promising  the  full  reward  of  so  many 
years  of  labor  and  incessant  wanderings — even  now 
opens  the  longest  and  saddest  of  all  the  long  sad 
chapters  of  his  fateful  life.  On  the  very  point  of  em 
barking,  the  careful  chief,  who  had  been  forced  to 
enlist  his  soldiers,  mechanics,  and  laborers  by  means 
of  others,  found  that  these  faithless  hirelings  had 
raked  together  the  very  scum  of  the  sea-ports ;  giv 
ing  him  for  soldiers  beggars,  vagabonds,  and  cripples 
so  deformed  that  they  could  not  handle  a  musket ; 
for  skilled  artisans,  men  perfectly  ignorant  of  their 
pretended  trades.  In  urgent  haste,  he  partly  reme 
dies  the  evil,  but,  as  usual,  must  let  much  of  it  pass  ; 
trusting,  not  without  reason,  to  the  calm  and  ready 
strength  which  has  made  head  against  so  many  trou 
bles  before.  But  another  evil  he  cannot  remedy. 
The  generous  king  has  appointed  to  the  naval  com 
mand  a  E~orman,  M.  de  Beaujeu ;  and  it  would  be 
ungracious,  and  is  now  too  late  to  endeavor  to  dis 
place  him :  a  little-minded,  obstinate,  quarrelsome, 
pompous  man,  ridiculously  vain  of  his  rank  of  cap 
tain,  snappish  and  irritable,  of  all  men  on  earth  the 
very  one  to  be  vexed  at  the  silent,  self-reliant,  haughty 
reserve  of  La  Salle.  Even  before  sailing,  this  un 
happy  captain  writes  peevish  and  dissatisfied  letters  to 
the  marine  department.  How  fatally  and  bitterly  the 
fool  vented  his  spite  afterward,  will  quickly  appear. 


112  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

Let  us  hasten  ;  the  narrative  is  painful ;  who  would 
protract  the  sorrowful  story  ?  They  had  to  return 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  replace  a  broken  bow 
sprit  ;  then  sailing  again,  La  Salle,  with  wise  and 
cautious  speed,  refused  to  stop  uselessly  at  Madeira, 
and  the  wretched  Gorman,  Beaujeu,  and  all  the  lazy 
ships'  companies,  murmured  and  were  enraged. 
Then  he  positively  forbade  the  sailors  to  subject  his 
followers  to  the  brutal  abuses  usual  at  crossing  the 
tropic  line,  and  they  grumbled  and  complained  still 
more.  As  the  fleet  approached  St.  Domingo,  a  storm 
scattered  it ;  and  eagerly  seizing  the  opportunity  of 
making  trouble,  the  mean  Beaujeu,  instead  of  enter 
ing  Port  de  Paix,  the  rendezvous  agreed  upon,  and 
where  were  the  royal  officers  whom  La  Salle  was  to 
meet  and  who  were  ordered  to  aid  and  promote  his 
designs,  passed  round  the  island  and  landed  at  Petit 
Goave,  far  to  the  southwest.  And  now,  also,  the  in 
scrutable  purposes  of  God  add  to  fierce  tempests  and 
hatefully  perverse  unfriends  aboard,  two  other  ene 
mies.  The  Spaniards,  now  at  war  with  France,  sur 
prise  and  seize  his  ketch,  the  St.  Francis,  with  thirty 
tons  of  merchandise  and  military  stores — a  grievous 
loss,  which  would  not  have  happened  had  Beaujeu 
put  in  at  Port  de  Paix,  as  lie  should  have  done.  But 
La  Salle  calmly  adds  the  item  to  that  long  list  of 
shipwrecks  in  Canada,  and  dismisses  it  from  his 
mind.  A  wasting  disease,  however,  is  the  second  and 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  113 

worst  of  these  added  foes ;  and  under  the  furious 
assault  of  a  tropical  fever,  his  life  even  is  despaired 
of.  But  he  is  not  yet  to  die  ;  we  may  even  suppose 
that  that  powerful  will  urges  him  through  this  peril 
of  disease :  that  he  will  not  die — unless  God  so  de 
cree.  And  in  three  weeks,  though  yet  feeble,  he 
consults  with  the  governor  and  intendant,  who  came 
to  Petit  Goave  to  meet  him ;  takes  on  board  provi 
sions  and  domestic  animals ;  obtains  sailing  direc 
tions,  and  hastens  away ;  for  his  miserable  band  of 
vagabond  soldiers,  living  in  licentious  disorder,  are 
diseased  and  dying,  or  desert  the  jangling  and 
ill-omened  fleet  for  the  luxurious  ease  of  St.  Do 
mingo, 

Embarking  in  the  slowest  sailer,  and  taking  the 
lead  in  her,  he  sets  sail  again ;  coasts  the  southern 
shore  of  Cuba  ;  stops  three  days  at  the  Isle  of  Pines ; 
weathers  Cape  Corientes,  and  then  Cape  San  Anto 
nio,  and  after  being  once  driven  back,  steers  north 
west  into  the  great  Gulf  of  Mexico,  straight  for  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  They  sail  eight  days,  and 
now  the  soundings  tell  of  land  not  far  off.  In  two 
days  more  they  discern  it.  "Where  are.  they?  Con 
sulting  and  hesitating,  they  conclude  that  they  are 
in  the  great  Bay  of  Appalache ;  for  the  pilots  at 
St.  Domingo  told  them  of  strong  currents,  which 
they  accordingly  believe  have  carried  them  east 
ward.  Fatal  error  I  They  were,  doubtless,  already 


PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

far  west  of  that  strangely-hidden  river,  in  one  of  the 
bays  of  the  coast  of  Texas. 

But  thus  they  judge  ;  and  coasting  further  west  to 
find  the  Mississippi,  they  leave  it  yet  further  behind 
them.  Sailing  a  whole  week,  they  still  imagine 
themselves  in  the  Bay  of  Appalache.  Sailing  two 
weeks  more,  they  become  convinced  of  their  error ; 
the  coast  trends  southward ;  they  are  approaching 
Mexico.  They  turn  about,  and  it  is  proposed  to  find 
the  Mississippi  by  coasting  eastward  again.  But 
Beaujeu  flatly  refuses,  without  a  supply  of  provisions, 
which  La  Salle  will  not  give,  lest  the  wicked  captain 
should  sail  away  to  France. 

Returning,  however,  a  little  way  up  the  coast, 
they  enter  Matagorda  Bay,  which  La  Salle  names 
the  Bay  of  St.  Louis,  and  which  he  vainly  hopes  to 
find  one  of  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi.  It  is  de 
cided  to  disembark,  and  all  the  emigrants  go  ashore, 
leaving  the  crews  only  on  board  the  ships.  The 
neighborhood  is  explored,  the  harbor  sounded,  and 
the  Aimable,  the  transport,  ordered  in.  Her  captain, 
a  brute  or  a  villain,  or  more  probably  both,  refuses 
a  pilot,  and  -running  his  vessel  ashore,  she  bilges ; 
some  one  takes  pains  to  destroy  her  boat ;  and  the 
greater  part  of  her  cargo — the  very  sustenance  of  the 
colony — is  lost.  The  Indians  take  some  goods  which 
float  ashore ;  and  a  party  of  Frenchmen,  sent  to 
reclaim  them,  seizing  some  canoes  and  skins  in  repri- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  115 

sal,  the  enraged  savages  make  a  night  attack  upon 
them,  kill  two  and  wound  two  more. 

The  demoniac  cunning  and  ferocity  of  the  red  men 
thus  cooperates  with  these  devouring  shipwrecks. 
And  the  colonists  already  begin  to  lament,  to  mur 
mur,  and  to  talk  of  returning  to  France.  But  their 
leader,  though  cruelly  grieved,  is  not  discouraged  nor 
moved ;  his  fearless  resolution  is  a  tower  of  strength 
to  all  the  band,  and  the  enterprise  proceeds. 

Beaujeu  departs,  still  angry  and  venomous,  carry 
ing  away  all  the  cannon  balls  for  the  eight  great  guns 
of  the  colony,  because,  forsooth,  he  would  have  had 
to  move  part  of  his  cargo  to  get  at  them ;  leaving  on 
that  wild  and  distant  shore  about  two  hundred  souls, 
the  small  vessel,  La  Belle,  and  that  portion  of  provi 
sions  and  goods  saved  from  the  Spaniards  and  the 
sea. 

This  is  in  the  middle  of  March,  1685.  The  com 
mander  orders  a  temporary  fort  to  be  constructed,  and 
then  explores  the  coast.  Finding  a  pleasant  site 
some  distance  west,  he  moves  his  colony  thither,  and 
in  the  course  of  July  they  are  all  there,  their  only 
misfortunes  by  the  way,  one  death  from  the  bite  of  a 
rattlesnake,  and  a  conspiracy  among  the  soldiers  to 
murder  their  officers  and  run  away,  this  last  detected 
in  time  to  crush  it.  On  this  new  site  are  erected, 
with  terrific  labor,  even  fatal  to  some  of  the  colonists, 
dwellings  and  a  fort,  named  Fort  St.  Louis  ;  and  La 


116  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

Salle,  Laving  thus  provided  for  the  security  of  his 
colony,  prepares  to  make  a  journey  by  land  for  the 
hidden  fateful  river.  In  October,  having  been  de 
layed  by  his  brother's  sickness,  he  sets  out,  the  Belle 
accompanying  him  part  of  the  way  by  sea.  On  the 
first  night  six  men,  detached  to  take  soundings,  keep 
ing  careless  watch,  are  murdered  by  the  savages. 
The  commander  marches  on  eastward,  discovers  the 
Colorado,  examines  the  eastern  part  of  Matagorda 
Bay,  and  returns,  after  an  absence  of  more  than  four 
months,  with  but  eight  of  the  twenty  men  who  set 
out  with  him.  Six  are  dead ;  one,  a  quarrelsome, 
vindictive  villain,  named  Duhaut,  deserted,  and  has 
returned  alone  some  time  before  ;  and  the  others  are 
searching  for  the  Belle,  of  which  no  news  has  been 
received.  They  came  in  next  day  ;  nothing  could  be 
seen  of  her ;  she  was  doubtless  lost,  and  with  her  dis 
appeared  their  last  means  of  communicating  with 
civilized  men,  unless  by  journeys  scarcely  less  than 
sure  to  be  fatal. 

But  such  communication  must  be  had.  The  neces 
sity  of  it  being  recognized,  the  strong  and  calm  com 
mander  quietly  and  quickly  prepares  for  it,  as  coolly 
as  if  he  were  only  intending  to  step  across  the  fort ; 
gathering  resolution — if,  indeed,  that  indomitable 
will  ever  looked  for  encouragement  at  all — from  the 
evident  alternative  of  swift  destruction.  His  journey 
shall  be  to  the  Illinois,  wrhere,  in  his  strong  hill  fort, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  117 

the  valiant  and  faithful  Tonty  is  sure  to  be  at  his 
post,  waiting  orders  as  directed — unless  orders  which 
cannot  be  disobeyed  have  summoned  him  away  from 
all  earthly  obligations.  Once  in  Illinois,  he  can  ob 
tain  assistance,  there,  and  can  send  or  go  to  Quebec 
or  to  France.  Taking  twenty  men  again,  he  sets  out 
by  land,  in  the  end  of  April,  1686,  leaving  M.  Joutel, 
as  before,  in  command  of  the  fort. 

He  returns  in  August,  having  travelled  far  up  into 
the  interior,  and  having  there  been  delayed  for  two 
months  and  more  by  a  violent  fever.  Their  ammu 
nition  becoming  exhausted,  during  this  time,  and 
being  entirely  dependent  on  hunting  for  provisions, 
they  had  no  alternative  but  to  turn  back.  Of  this 
second  company  of  twenty,  but  eight  returned  ;  four 
had  deserted  to  the  Indians,  one  wTas  lost,  one  de 
voured  by  an  alligator,  and  the  rest,  being  unable  to 
endure  the  fatigue  of  the  journey,  had  set  out  to 
return  and  were  never  heard  of. 

These  failures  cast  a  deep  gloom  over  the  little 
company  in  the  fort,  now  reduced,  by  death  and 
desertion,  from  about  two  hundred  to  forty;  but, 
says  Joutel  in  his  journal,  "  the  even  temper  of  our 
chief  made  all  men  easy,  and  he  found,  by  his  great 
vivacity  of  spirit,  expedients  which  revived  the  low 
est  ebb  of  hope."  He  had  given  up  the  Belle  for 
lost,  and  therefore  rejoiced  exceedingly  to  find  that 
his  kinsman,  M.  Chefdeville,  and  some  others  of  her 


118  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

crew,  had  escaped,  and  had  saved  his  own  clothes 
and  part  of  his  papers,  although,  the  little  vessel  her 
self,  as  he  had  concluded,  had  perished. 

La  Salle  at  once  set  about  building  a  storehouse, 
to  keep  his  men  employed  ;  and  still  retaining  his  in 
tention  of  proceeding  to  the  Illinois,  they  talked 
daily  about  the  journey.  Being  taken  ill,  however, 
his  stout-hearted  lieutenant,  Joutel,  offered  to  go 
instead,  if  he  might  take  fifteen  men  and  the  faithful 
Indian  hunter,  who  had  followed  his  chief  to  France 
and  back  to  Mexico.  But  the  commander  recovers 
his  health,  and  again — as  he  would  have  done  a 
hundredth  time,  had  he  failed  ninety-nine — makes 
his  arrangements  and  sets  out,  taking  with  him  a 
third  twenty  men,  and  leaving  thirteen  men  and 
seven  women  in  the  fort,  with  a  considerable  stock 
of  provisions  and  arms. 

Thus,  on  the  12th  of  January,  1687,  departs  Kobert 
de  la  Salle,  for  the  third  time,  from  his  little  colony, 
as  resolute  and  cool  as  ever ;  but  the  parting  was 
saddened  as  if  by  presentiments  of  evil.  "  We  took 
our  leaves,"  says  the  veteran  man  of  war,  Joutel, 
"  with  so  much  tenderness  and  sorrow,  as  if  we  had 
all  presaged  that  we  should  never  see  each  other 
more." 

And  now  the  long,  brave  struggle  with  fate  and 
with  enemies,  draws  to  its  melancholy  close.  The 
little  party,  with  their  five  horse-loads  of  provisions, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  119 

disappears  from  the  eyes  of  the  Sieur  Barbier,  left 
commander  of  the  scanty  colony  in  the  fort ;  and 
plunging  into  the  woods,  marches  northeastward, 
across  the  pleasant  prairies  .and  through  the  open 
woods  of  Texas.  They  ford  rivers  and  pass  through 
swamps,  often  easing  their  progress  by  following 
buffalo  paths ;  negotiate,  as  they  go,  with  the  In 
dians,  always  friendly,  but  always  on  their  guard; 
and  Nika,  the  hunter,  ever  purveys  for  them  abun 
dance  of  game. 

On  the  15th  of  March,  La  Salle  sends  Duhaut, 
the  mutinous  wretch  before  mentioned,  Hiens,  a 
German  buccaneer,  Liotot  the  surgeon,  Nika  the 
Indian,  and  his"  own  footman,  Saget,  to  bring  in 
some  provisions  which  he  had  concealed  a  few  miles 
away,  on  his  last  journey.  These  they  found  spoiled 
by  wet,  and  as  they  returned,  Nika  killed  two  buf 
falo,  and  they  sent  the  footman  on  to  advise  their 
commander  to  have  the  meat  dried,  and  send  horses 
for  it.  He  does  so,  sending  his  nephew,  Moranget, 
a  violent  and  reckless  young  man,  with  several 
more  of  the  party. 

Moranget  comes,  and  finds  that  Duhaut  and  the 
rest  are  smoking  the  buffalo  meat,  and  that,  by  the 
common  right  of  hunters,  they  have  laid  by  some 
marrow-bones  and  choice  bits  for  themselves.  In  a 
sudden  burst  of  unreasonable  and  inexplicable  pas 
sion,  he  reproves  and  threatens  them,  and  seizes  not 


120  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

only  all  the  smoked  meat,  but  all  the  tidbits  which 
they  had  saved  according  to  custom.  This  last 
offence  filled  up  the  cup  of  their  anger,  even  to  run 
ning  over  ;  for  these  three,  the  surgeon  Liotot,  Hiens, 
and  Duhaut,  fancied  they  had — and  most  probably 
had — other  causes  of  complaint  against  the  unhappy 
young  man.  With  black  looks,  their  hearts  all  boil 
ing  with  hot  wrath,  but  still  withheld  for  the  moment 
by  lack  of  concert  from  wreaking  the  revenge  for 
which  they  all  thirst,  they  silently  draw  off,  and  con 
sult  apart  upon  the  matter.  Seared  and  hardened  by 
crime,  the  inhuman  wretches  easily  agree  upon  their 
measures.  They  will  murder  Moranget  in  his  sleep, 
and  so  square  their  account  with  him.  But,  one  of 
them  suggests,  the  Indian  and  the  footman  are  faith 
ful — they  will  avenge  the  deed,  or  inform  upon  us. 
The  answer  is  easy — they,  too,  will  be  asleep ;  we 
have  only  to  kill  them  too.  Accordingly,  taking 
into  their  plot  Teissier  and  Larcheveque,  two  more 
of  the  party,  they  wait,  revelling  in  the  devilish  satis 
faction  of  anticipated  revenge,  until  their  unsuspecting 
victims  have  eaten,  and  are  peacefully  asleep,  dream 
ing,  doubtless,  of  distant  homes  and  loving  hearts 
in  sunny  France.  Liotot,  the  surgeon,  arises,  takes 
an  axe,  and  strikes  Moranget  many  blows  on  the 
head ;  then  leaving  him,  dispatches  the  Indian  and 
the  footman,  who  never  stirred.  But  such  was  the 
vitality  of  the  young  officer,  that,  though  mangled 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  121 

and  speechless,  he  sat  up,  alive,  a  horrible  spectacle 
of  misery.  The  murderers  oblige  his  fellow,  De  Marie, 
though  not  a  conspirator,  to  put  him  out  of  his  pain. 

Crimes  are  seldom  single.  It  needs  not  long  reflec 
tion  to  show  them  that  they  must  do  yet  another  mur 
der,  or  suffer  for  those  already  done.  They  must  kill 
La  Salle  too.  And  they  will  the  more  readily  do 
this,  because  they  have  some  harshness  of  his  to 
punish.  They  would  at  once  have  set  out  to  attack 
him,  had  not  the  river  between  them  risen  too  high. 
But  he  comes  to  them,  as  if  impelled  upon  his  fate. 
Uneasy  at  the  delay  of  his  nephew,  and,  as  if  under 
some  presage  of  misfortune,  or  consciousness  of  fault 
in  his  own  or  his  nephew's  conduct,  he  asks  his  men 
if  Liotot,  Hiens,  and  Duhaut  have  not  expressed  some 
discontent.  No  one  seems  to  know  of  it,  and,  his 
apprehensions  increasing,  he  sets  out  on  the  third 
day  to  find  his  nephew. 

Approaching  the  tragic  scene,  he  sees  some  eagles, 
and  thinking  carrion  near,  he  fires  a  shot,  as  a  signal 
to  his  friends,  in  case  they  have  killed  game  and  are 
within  hearing.  Silent  in  death,  they  are  beyond  all 
human  summons.  The  doomed  commander's  signal 
serves  only  to  insure  and  hasten  his  own  fate.  The 
conspirators  hear  it ;  Duhaut  and  Larcheveque  cross 
the  river ;  Duhaut  hides  in  the  reeds,  and  Larche 
veque  shows  himself  at  a  little  distance.  La  Salle 
calls  out  to  him,  asking  after  Moranget.  The  man 

6 


122  PIONEEKS,   PREACHEKS   AND   PEOPLE 

answers,  vaguely,  rudely,  and  omitting  the  usual  ges 
ture  of  respect,  that  he  is  along  the  river.  The 
punctilious  and  severe  chief  advances,  as  if  to  reprove 
or  chastise  the  impertinent  manner  of  his  follower; 
Duhaut  takes  fatal  aim  from  his  lair,  and  fires.  His 
ball  passes  through  the  head  of  La  Salle,  and  he  falls 
without  speaking  a  word. 

Father  AnastasiusDouay,  who  was  with  his  leader, 
prepares  to  share  his  fate,  but  on  their  telling  him 
that  he  is  safe,  endeavors  to  do  the  last  priestly  offices 
for  him.  But  the  dying  man  can  only  feebly  press 
the  hand  of  the  good  father,  in  token  that  he  under 
stands  him,  and  his  spirit  quickly  passes.  The  death 
shot  brings  up  the  other  conspirators ;  and  they  strip 
and  insult  the  poor  corpse.  The  surgeon,  Liotot, 
laughs  and  mocks  at  it,  and,  in  the  excess  of  his  bru 
tal  glee,  cries  out  over  and  over  again,  "  There  thou 
liest,  grand  bashaw — there  thou  liest!"  And  they 
fling  the  naked  body  aside  among  the  bushes,  a  prey 
to  wild  beasts  ;  though  they  do  not  prevent  the  sor 
rowing  priest  from  burying  it  afterward,  and  erecting 
a  rude  cross  over  it. 

Thus  died  Robert  Cavelier  de  la-  Salle,  at  a  time 
when  a  fairer  prospect  than  ever  of  some  permanent 
success  was  opening  before  him.  His  faithful  fol 
lower,  Joutel,  who  was  one  of  the  party,  but  not  pre 
sent  at  his  death,  thus  delivers  his  funeral  oration, 
with  terse  military  frankness,  mingled  of  praise  and 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  123 

blame :  "  His  constancy  and  courage,  and  his  extra 
ordinary  knowledge  in  arts  and  sciences,  which  ren 
dered  him  fit  for  anything,  together  with  an  indefati 
gable  body,  which  made  him  surmount  all  difficul 
ties,  would  have  procured  a  glorious  issue  to  his  un 
dertaking,  had  not  all  those  excellent  qualities  been 
counterbalanced  by  too  haughty  a  behavior,  which 
sometimes  made  him  insupportable,  and  by  a  seve 
rity  toward  those  under  his  command,  which  at  last 
drew  on  him  implacable  hatred,  and  was  the  occasion 
of  his  death." 

Few  words  may  close  this  sad  story.  A  swift  re 
tribution  overtook  Liotot  and  Duhaut,  who  were  a 
little  after  slain  in  a  quarrel,  by  Hiens,  who  remained 
among  the  Indians.  Six  of  the  party,  all  the  conspi 
rators  having  left  them,  reached,  in  July,  a  post  esta 
blished  by  Tonty  at  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  and 
proceeding  onward,  reached  Fort  St.  Louis,  thence 
wrent  to  Quebec,  and  thence  to  France  ;  hiding,  with 
difficulty  and  equivocation,  their  heavy  burden  of 
sad  news,  until  they  first  revealed  it  to  the  French 
king. 

La  Salle's  little,  colony  vanished  away.  The  In 
dians  assaulted  and  took  it,  slaying  all  but.  four 
youths  and  a  young  girl,  who  were  afterward  rescued 
by  a  Spanish  force  from  Mexico,  sent  to  observe  the 
French  establishment. 

Tonty  had  descended  the  Mississippi  while  La  Salle 


124  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

was  in  Texas,  but  not  finding  him,  left  a  letter  for 
him  with,  the  Indians,  who  delivered  it  safe  to  Iber- 
ville,  fourteen  years  after,  when  he  entered  the  river. 
Then  returning,  he  resumed  the  duties  of  his  lieuten 
ancy  in  Illinois  ;  and  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life, 
as  far  as  is  known,  in  military  services  in  various 
parts  of  North  America,  a  stout  and  faithful  soldier 
to  the  last. 

Not  one  written  word  from  La  Salle's  pen  has 
reached  us.  His  papers  perished  in  the  lonely  fort 
on  Matagorda  Bay.  Nor  have  we  even  reports  of  his 
statements  as  to  his  views  or  motives  ;  for  it  was  not 
his  custom  to  speak  of  what  he  intended,  but  only  to 
order  what  he  desired,  and  thus  it  happens  that  our 
estimate  of  him  must  be  based  upon  our  scanty  infor 
mation  of  his  actual  achievements,  preserved  either 
by  ill-informed  or  unappreciative  friends,  or  unscru 
pulous  and  cunning  enemies. 

"We  need  not  elaborate  a  description  of  his  charac 
ter  ;  our  story  has  sufficiently  exhibited  it.  The  les 
sons  of  his  life  are  easily  read.  It  is  true,  that  that 
haughty  silence,  that  harsh,  peremptory  manner,  were 
faults ;  but  how  manifold  the  excuses — how  terribly 
complete  the  expiation  !  Tenderly  we  would  touch 
upon  those  errors,  and  would  rather  enlarge  upon  the 
unspotted  honor,  the  far-seeing  plans,  the  wise  prac 
tical  sense,  the  tact  and  skill  in  governing  and  nego 
tiating,  and  organizing,  the  stainless,  impregnable 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  125 

courage,  and,  above  all,  that  calm,  colossal  power  of 
will  which  impelled  him  so  resistlessly  through  and 
over  the  opposition  of  so  many  foes,  so  many  misfor 
tunes,  with  an  inscrutable,  gigantic  momentum,  like 
that  by  which  the  vast  icebergs  of  the  Arctic  ride 
crashing  through  the  thick  fields  of  ironbound  ice, 
with  a  force  beyond  human  admeasurement,  but 
calmly  and  steadily,  as  if  floating  in  a  summer  sea. 
~No  grander  model  of  superiority  to  the  vicissitudes  of 
human  life  is  to  be  found  in  history. 

Farewell,  strong  and  brave  man !  From  thee  may 
wre  well  learn  a  lesson  of  courage,  of  perseverance, 
of  patient  endurance  and  undying  hope  ;  and  if  the 
perplexing  question  should  arise  within  us,  How 
can  it  be  just  that  such  heroic  struggles  should  at  last 
so  utterly  fail — why  could  not  this  noble  life  at  last 
be  crowned  with  peace  and  honor  and  happiness  ?  let 
Faith  answer,  from  behind  the  mysterious  veil  of 
death — Ye  shall  know  all,  when  ye  come  hither ! 


Lecture    III. 

THE 

FRENCH    IN    ILLINOIS. 


127 


THE  FRENCH  IN  ILLINOIS. 

THE  IDYL  OF  AMERICA. 

IN  the  history  of  the  exploration  and  settlement  of 
the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  as  far  as  we  have 
hitherto  examined  it,  the  four  predominant  influences 
may  be  named  as  Romance,  Religion,  Ambition,  and 
Greed,  each  conjoined  with  the  others  in  varying  pro 
portions. 

The  early  history  of  New  England  is  a  manifesta 
tion  of  a  stalwart  courage  that  dared  to  face  cold, 
hunger,  peril,  nakedness,  and  barbarism,  solely  for 
the  maintenance  of  a  faith  dearer  than  life  itself. 
But  this  unrelaxing  sinewy-  exertion,  this  undaunted 
courage,  this  determined  and  irreversible  resolve  to 
live  out  the  principles  of  religious  belief,  in  things 
political  and  social  as  well  as  in  things  ecclesiastical 
— all  these  powerful  and  noble  and  lofty  characteris 
tics  are  combined  with  and  colored  by  a  certain  de 
gree  of  severity.  The  Puritan  social  life  was  rugged 
to  hardness — stern,  uninviting.  None  of  its  features 
were  refined,  delicate,  genial.  Sentiment  was  un 
known  to  the  majority,  and  ruled  out  for  all.  The 

6*  129 


130  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

temporal  exigencies  of  the  place  and  the  time  were 
too  terrible  and  too  pressing — the  requisitions  of  the 
current  Calvinism  were  too  serious — too  gloomy 
— to  encourage  or  even  to  permit  the  expansion  and 
development  and  cultivation  of  the  more  beautiful 
social  faculties. 

Nor  did  the  origin,  the  process  and  the  progress  of 
the  settlement  of  other  parts  of  the  continent,  afford 
more  space  for  the  growth  or  exercise  of  these  facul 
ties.  Further  south,  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  we  see 
the  workings  of  the  European  mercantile  system,  as 
modified  by  the  colonial  monopolies  of  the  respective 
governments  who  sent  or  protected  the  settlers.  JSTew 
York  was  a  depot  and  agency  for  the  traffic  of  the 
Dutch  "West  India  Company.  The  spirit  of  the  early 
lords  of  Virginia  is  well  illustrated  by  the  brutal  ex 
hortation  of  that  nobleman  who  replied  to  the  colo 
nial  representations  of  the  wants  of  their  souls,  and 
their  need  of  mental  and  spiritual  improvement,  by 
saying,  "  Damn  your  '  souls ;'  make  tobacco !"  Caro 
lina  was  an  endeavor  to  realize  the  fantastic  political 
dream  of  the  philosopher  Locke.  In  Florida  and 
Louisiana,  the  predominating  influences  were  the 
prominent  traits  of  the  rulers  and  people  of  the  parent 
nations,  reproduced  with  bad  fidelity  in  the  Ameri 
can  settlements  which  sprang  up  under  their  colonial 
monopolies  :  greed  of  gold,  lust  of  landed  property, 
pride  of  conquest,  fanatical  zeal.  The  transatlantic 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  131 

plantations  were  primarily  to  serve  as  distant  gar 
dens  to  the  royal  palaces  of  Europe,  and  secondarily, 
to  spread  the  dominion  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith. 

But  we  are,  at  this  point,  brought  to  the  consider 
ation  of  one  beautiful  exception  to  the  remainder  of 
all  the  broad  continent.  Not  to  a  perfect  Paradise — 
not  to  a  true  and  ideal  Eden ;  but  yet  to  such  a 
peaceful  sunny  spot,  such  a  benign  and  kindly  social 
life,  such  a  scene  of  universal  heartfelt  instinctive 
courtesy,  of  patriarchal  subordination,  of  mild  and 
blessed  neighborly  virtue  and  forbearance,  of  harm 
less,  simple,  sufficing  pleasure,  of  perfect  health, 
blooming,  happy  youth,  unambitious,  industrious 
manhood,  quiet  old  age,  as  is  nowhere  else  to  be 
found  throughout  all  the  broad  page  of  American 
history. 

The  conduct  of  the  French  toward  the  aborigines 
of  this  continent  was  far  more  humane  and  generous, 
wise  and  successful,  than  the  policy  of  any  other 
European  nation.  The  Spaniards  treated  the  Indians 
like  slaves  and  beasts  of  burden,  and  with  a  cold 
blooded,  selfish,  blind  brutality,  which,  by  extermi 
nating  the  unhappy  race,  exhausted  its  own  materials 
and  disappointed  its  own  objects.  The  Anglo-Saxon, 
a  man  of  higher  grade,  but  not  less  self-contained, 
self-satisfied,  exclusive,  and  resolute  than  the  Span 
iard,  did  not  prove  himself  brutally  bigoted  and  ava 
ricious  like  him,  in  his  intercourse  with  the  red 


132  PIONEEKS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

men,  but  only  unconciliating,  severe,  exacting,  and 
strangely  inconsiderate  of  the  defects  and  misfortunes 
of  savage  nature  and  savage  education.  Planting 
himself  in  the  wilderness  with  all  his  institutions,  his 
common  law  and  statutory  code,  with  the  Mosaic  in 
tensifications  which  obscurity  and  distance  allowed, 
he  did  what  wras  fair,  just,  lawful  and  right,  by  his 
laws  and  according  to  his  principles.  And  if  the  In 
dians  transgressed  these,  instead  of  inquiring  under 
what  code,  or  upon  what  violation  of  savage  prin 
ciples  it  was  done,  he  stolidly  inflicted  a  statutory 
English  penalty ;  and  if  this  roused  retaliation,  the 
united  colony,  with  the  same  stolid  ignorance,  re 
torted  by  judicial  and  military  devastations  and  mur 
ders  that  might,  it  is  true,  temporarily  quell  opposi 
tion  by  the  death  of  their  enemies  or  the  intimidation 
of  the  survivors,  but  which  always  left  alive  the 
smoldering  embers  which  kept  up  the  constant  and 
fiendish  border  warfare,  and  ever  and  anon  blazed 
out  into  one  of  the  frightful  and  perilous  Indian 
wars. 

The  French  were  no  whit  less  zealous  for  their  re 
ligion  than  the  Spaniards ;  beyond  all  comparison 
more  so,  as  missionaries,  than  the  English.  Nor  were 
they  ]ess  eager  than  either  for  gain,  for  adventure, 
or  for  empire.  But  the  genial  social  qualities,  the 
inborn  national  adaptability  and  courtesy,  even  the 
less  stringent  sense  of  moral  obligation,  their  greater 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  133 

habitude  to  feudal  law,  and  their  patient  sub 
jection  to  seignorial  rights,  which  may  be  called 
faults  or  defects,  gave  them  incalculable  advantages 
in  founding,  maintaining,  and  cementing  the  public 
and  individual  intercourse  which  they  so  long  main 
tained  with  the  Indians.  In  truth,  had  it  depended 
alone  on  the  success  of  alliances  and  cooperation  with 
Indian  tribes,  instead  of  the  fortunes  of  civilized  war 
and  the  exigencies  of  European  politics,  it  is  well- 
nigh  certain  that  the  vast  French  belt  of  fortresses 
and  settlements  which  so  perilously  girded  in  the 
Atlantic  seaboard,  would  have  fulfilled  its  purpose ; 
that  the  English  settlers  would  have  been  driven 
into  the  sea,  exterminated,  or  reduced  under  the 
French  power ;  and  that  the  lilies  of  France,  instead 
of  the  lion  of  England,  would  have  waved  over  the 
whole  vast  domain  of  central  North  America  during 
the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

There  is  no  more  striking  exemplification  of  the 
advantages  in  point  of  personal  character  thus  as 
cribed  to  the  French,  than  the  history  of  those  set 
tlements  founded  in  Illinois  by  the  successors  of 
La  Salle,  during  the  period  from  about  1680  until  the 
removal  of  so  many  of  the  French  at  the  transfer  of 
authority  to  British  hands  in  1765. 

The  way  to  the  prairie  land,  it  will  be  remembered, 
was  pioneered  by  the  saintly  Marquette.  Next  came 
the  indefatigable  and  far-seeing  La  Salle,  and  his 


134:  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

faithful  and  no  less  indefatigable  lieutenant,  Henry 
de  Tonty.  These  able  leaders  and  skillful  negotiators, 
and  many  more  of  like  character  and  less  renown, 
diffused  among  all  the  numerous  tribes  from  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  distant  Missouri, 
where  the  stout  sieur  Juchereau  maintained  his 
lonely  trading-post,  a  spirit  of  friendly  regard  for  the 
French,  and  of  deep  reverence  for  the  great  French 
king.  And  in  the  footsteps  of  trappers  and  traders 
there  followed  Jesuit  missionaries  of  zeal  as  fervent 
and  character  as  beautiful  as  the  holy  Marquette  him 
self:  Allouez,  his  predecessor  on  Lake  Superior,  his 
successor  on  the  alluvial  lands  that  border  the  rivers 
of  Illinois,  and  good  Father  Gravier,  who  founded 
the  oldest  permanent  settlement  in  the  great  Missis 
sippi  Valley,  the  Tillage  of  the  Immaculate  Concep 
tion  of  Our  Lady,  afterward  named  Kaskaskia.  The 
time  of  the  foundation  of  this  ancient  town  is  not 
positively  ascertained ;  but  such  data  as  have  been 
determined  seem  to  justify  the  belief  that  Philadel 
phia,  Detroit,  Mobile,  and  Kaskaskia,  were  all  founded 
in  about  the  same  year.  Then  came  Father  Pinet 
and  Father  Marest,  preaching  in  like  manner  to  the 
unsophisticated  but  most  disc  our  agin  gly  vicious  deni 
zens  of  the  woods,  the  doctrines  of  Jesus  and  of  the 
Resurrection.  These  holy  fathers  built  them  little 
unpretending  chapels  of  bark,  and  their  humble 
sanctuaries  were  crowded  with  such  numbers  of 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  135 

natives  that  many  were  obliged  to  stand  without  the 
threshold. 

Then,  enticed  by  the  stories  that  reached  them,  un 
der  the  inclement  sky  and  the  strict  feudal  system  of 
Lower  Canada,  of  the  good  livers  of  this  distant  land, 
the  mildness  of  its  climate,  the  richness  of  its  soil, 
the  fruitfulness  gf  its  pastures  and  its  groves,  one 
straggler  after  another  descended  from  those  rigorous 
regions,  navigating  the  vast  circuit  of  the  great  lakes, 
and  passing  by  Lake  Michigan,  across  the  portage  from 
the  Miamis  to  the  Kankakee,  or  from  the  Chicago  to 
the  Illinois,  and  erected  a  humble  home  within  that 
great  expanse  of  low-lying,  fertile  soil  now  calle.d  the 
American  Bottom.  This  region,  beginning  on  the 
eastern  bank  of  the  Mississippi  River,  nearly  opposite 
to  where  its  mild  and  placid  stream  is  joined  by  the 
turbid  waters  of  the  Missouri,  extending  from  this 
point  sixty  miles  southward,  and  in  width,  from  the 
river's  bank  to  the  bluff  beyond,  from  five  to  eight 
miles — formed  a  tract  of  such  fertility  as  is  scarcely 
elsewhere  to  be  found  on  earthc  Here,  surrounded 
by  the  exuberant  products  of  nature,  the  French 
raised  their  half-wigwams,  half-cabins,  by  driving 
corner  posts  into  the  ground,  and  then  transverse 
laths — for  they  scarce  deserved  the  name  of  beams 
— from  one  to  another  of  these  posts;  plastering 
over  these  with  the  hand,  a  coating  of  "cat-and- 
clay,"  as  the  American  settlers  called  it :  soft  clay 


136  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

worked  up  with  prairie  grass  and  Spanish  moss.  With 
this  stucco  upon  the  outside  and  the  inside  of  the 
latticed  walls,  and  neatly  whitewashed,  with  roofs 
thatched  with  long  grass  carefully  woven  and  matted 
together,  and  lasting,  it  is  said,  longer  than  shingles — 
with  spacious  piazzas  all  around  the  house — there 
presently  arose  picturesque  villages^  bordering  a  sin 
gle  street,  so  narrow  that  the  settler  might  sit,  smok 
ing  his  pipe,  beneath  the  shade  of  his  piazza,  and  talk 
to  his  neighbor  across  the  street  in  his  ordinary  tone 
of  voice. 

But  let  us  orderly  describe  this  simple  and  happy 
community  in  its  prime — perhaps  about  the  year 
1750 — their  laws,  their  religion,  their  social  organiza 
tion,  their  manners,  their  occupations,  their  charac 
ters.  For  the  whole  texture  and  character — the  gross 
and  the  detail — are  so  utterly  and  diametrically  op 
posed  to  the  ideas  and  conceptions  of  the  descendants 
of  English  settlers,  that  the  amplest  delineation  which 
the  occasion  admits  may  well  fail  to  communicate  a 
full  comprehension  of  them. 

The  laws  of  the  French  settlements  in  Illinois  were 
based  upon  the  same  great  Eoman  code  which  under 
lay  the  jurisprudence  of  all  the  south  of  Europe.  But 
some  considerations,  either  of  expediency  or  libe 
rality,  caused  the  substitution  of  allodial  titles  to  land 
for  the  feudal  tenures  of  Canada  ;  that  is,  the  settlers 
were  permitted  to  own  land  very  much  as  a  New 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  137 

England  farmer  owns  it,  instead  of  being  obliged  to 
hold  it  at  the  pleasure  of  the  feudal  lord,  in  whom 
was  vested  the  real  ownership.  Thus  the  villagers  of 
Kaskaskia,  and  the  other  neighboring  settlements  of 
our  "  terrestrial  paradise,"  as  La  Salle  aptly  termed 
these  regions,  possessed,  at  the  time  to  which  we  refer, 
each  his  parcel  of  land,  granted  by  government  to  all 
the  village  in  common ;  one  great  tract  for  tillage, 
and  one  for  pasture,  separated  by  a  fence,  and  stretch 
ing  back  from  the  river  bank  to  the  limestone  bluff. 
In  this  each  family  had  a  portion  set  apart  for  itself, 
and  sacred  from  all  intrusion.  The  village  authori 
ties,  the  senate  of  the  settlement,  enacted  regulations 
requiring  every  family  to  commence  planting,  culti 
vating  and  harvesting  on  certain  fixed  days.  The 
consent  of  this  same  body,  as  representing  the  whole 
settlement,  was  required  for  the  admission  of  any  new 
settler  to  a  share  in  the  common  field. 

Of  statute  and  common  law,  courts  and  attorneys, 
fees  and  pleadings,  these  fortunate  people  knew  no 
thing.  Quarrels  were  as  rare  among  them  as  in  an  af 
fectionate  family.  No  courts  of  law  were  established 
there  until  after  the  country  passed  into  the  possession 
of  the  British  ;  and  after  they  were  established,  no  ac 
tions  were  brought  before  them  until  after  the  Anglo- 
Americans  possessed  the  land.  The  sour,  pugnacious 
litigations,  as  well  as  that  much  vaunted  but  very 
doubtful  institution,  the  trial  by  jury,  of  the  English, 


138  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

were  an  evil  and  a  remedy  equally  foreign  and  terri 
ble  to  the  kindly  disposition  of  the  French.  If  any 
differences  arose  which  the  parties  could  not  settle, 
they  were  referred  to  the  arbitration  of  the  priest,  or, 
in  the  last  resort,  to  that  of  the  commandant  at  Fort 
Chartres,  a  mighty  potentate,  ruling,  in  name  at  least, 
territories  vaster  than  most  kingdoms,  representing 
all  the  power  and  wisdom  of  the  French  king,  and 
looked  up  to  by  the  simple  settlers  as  the  perfection 
of  all  human  strength  and  judgment. 

The  religion  of  this  far-off  prairie  settlement  was 
Catholic.  A  reverend  Jesuit  father,  head  of  the  col 
lege  established  in  Kaskaskia,  and  superior  of  all  the 
missions  in  the  valley,  and  the  curate  of  the  village, 
who  received  a  small  salary  from  the  government, 
eked  out  by  marriage  and  burial  fees,  and  the  gifts 
of  his  parishioners,  were  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries  in  Illinois.  Pomp  and  pride  they  had 
none  ;  devoted,  poor  and  humble,  it  was  the  purity 
and  goodness  of  their  lives  which  gave  them 
their  powerful  influence  among  their  little  flock. 
The  people  were  sincerely  religious  after  their  kind  ; 
and  with  the  characteristic  laxity  of  practice  so  ab 
horred  by  the  stricter  followers  of  Calvin,  after  the 
services  of  the  Sabbath  were  over,  they  devoted  to 
quiet  amusements  and  pleasures  the  remainder  of  the 
holy  day. 

They  were  ignorant  of  letters,  and  happy  in  their 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  139 

ignorance.  The  Jesuits  established  a  few  little 
schools,  where  were  taught  the  elements  of  reading 
and  writing ;  and  this  was  learning  enough  for  the 
Frenchman  of  Illinois.  The  great  world  and  its 
weighty  affairs  troubled  him  not.  He  supposed  that 
the  Pope  managed  all  spiritual  concerns,  and  Louis 
of  France  all  temporal  concerns.  "With  their  wisdom 
and  power  at  the  helm,  represented  by  those  two  reve 
rend  and  awful  dignitaries,  the  curate  and  monsieur 
le  commandant,  he,  the  French  settler  in  Illinois,  was 
perfectly  certain  that  all  would  go  well ;  he  let  the 
world  wag  on,  and  made  himself  happy  with  the  tri 
vial  enjoyments  brought  by  each  peaceful  day.  lie 
could  read  enough,  and  write  enough,  to  draw,  under 
stand,  and  sign  the  simple  instruments,  which  were 
all  he  needed,  and  to  spell  out  the  stories  of  the 
saints,  or  a  tale  of  the  crusaders  ;  and  more  he  needed 
not. 

Each  family  held  from  one  to  three  acres  of  land 
in  the  central  part  of  the  village.  This  was  the  pro 
perty  of  the  first  settler  of  the  name.  Here  the  pa 
triarch  built  his  lowly  cabin ;  and  as  son  or  daughter 
married,  another  mud-walled  and  grass-roofed  cabin 
arose  near  his  own,  and  within  the  same  inclosure. 
"With  each  new  marriage  appeared  a  new  home. 
These  peaceful,  easy  lives,  the  pure,  sweet  air,  the 
healthful  out-door  manners,  and  plain  nutritious  fo 
rest  food,  prolonged  life  to  a  remarkable  degree  ;  and 


140  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

thus  around  the  house  of  the  patriarch  there  gathered 
a  dozen  or  a  score,  nay,  forty  or  fifty  dwellings  of 
children  and  grandchildren  and  great-grandchildren, 
even  to  the  fourth  and  fifth  generations. 

These  communities  were,  perhaps,  chiefly  agricul 
tural.  Each  family  carefully  tilled  its  separate 
allowance  of  the  common  field,  and  that  wealthy  soil 
repaid  their  neat  though  homely  husbandry  with 
plenteous  and  more  than  sufficient  crops.  Six  hun 
dred  barrels  of  flour  were  shipped  to  New  Orleans 
from  the  Wabash  country  alone,  in  1Y46,  besides 
hides,  furs,  tallow,  wax,  and  honey. 

But  the  first  settlers  had  been  the  daring  coureurs 
de  lois,  the  runners  of  the  woods,  who  had  found 
their  wild  pleasures  and  their  perilous  profits  in  van 
quishing  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  the  pathless 
forest,  the  roaring  rapid,  the  toilsome  portage  ;  in  the 
skillful  but  laborious  occupation  of  the  hunt ;  and  in 
trading  with  the  fickle,  treacherous  and  savage  In 
dians  of  those  remote  regions,  from  the  Abenakis  of 
New  England  and  the  Outaouacs,  or  Ottawas,  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  Lake  Huron,  to  the  distant  Sioux, 
or,  as  they  were  then  termed,  Nadouessions.  And 
however  quietly  and  easily  the  sons  and  grandsons  of 
these  roving  men  lived  in  the  shaded  cabin  or  the 
narrow,  sunny  street  of  Kaskaskia,  or  among  the  lux 
uriant  fields  without ;  however  gaily  their  hours  might 
pass  amid  the  light  labors  of  the  day  and  the  jovial 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  14:1 

dances  of  the  evening ;  there  was  scarce  a  young  man 
in  whom  the  wild  longing  for  the  forest  and  rivers 
did  not  at  some  time  wake  up.  Then,  in  his  frail  ca 
noe,  he  passed  far  np  into  the  region  of  lakes  at  the 
head  of  the  Mississippi,  or  the  rugged,  desolate  plains 
upon  the  upper  waters  of  the  Missouri ;  traversing 
the  distant  Sioux  country,  or  even  the  rugged  ranges 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Hunting  and  trading,  he 
returned  with  a  canoe-load  of  furs ;  floated  afar  off 
down  to  that  great  capital,  ISTew  Orleans,  or  round  by 
the  bayous  and  creeks  of  the  coast,  to  the  distant  city 
of  Mobile  ;  exchanged  his  wild  commodities  for  what 
ever  civilized  merchandise  seemed  good  unto  him, 
and  returned  up  the  rapid  river  to  his  quiet  prairie 
home,  perhaps  to  refit  and  depart  upon  another  ex 
pedition  to  the  Indian  country ;  perhaps  to  trade 
away  the  goods  from  below  for  produce,  and  return 
again  to  barter  at  the  southern  cities ;  or  perhaps  to 
bury  a  bag  of  French  livres  and  louis-d'ors,  or  Span 
ish  doubloons  or  dollars,  beneath  the  floor  of  his 
home,  and  resume  his  labors  in  the  fields. 

Whether  the  young  wanderer  returned  richer  or 
poorer  in  purse,  he  brought  home  one  certain  and 
lasting  treasure — a  great  store  of  wild  tales  of  inci 
dents  by  flood  and  field,  his  own  strange  and  varied 
experiences,  and  many  more,  told  him  by  the  trap 
pers  of  the  mountains,  the  canoe-men  of  the  river, 
and  the  various  men  he  met  in  the  cities  of  the  south. 


142  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

The  return  of  these  travellers,  after  their  long  voy 
age  of  twelve  or  twenty  months,  wras — like  every  fes 
tive  occasion — celebrated  by  a  ball ;  for  here,  as  eve 
rywhere,  dancing  was  a  peculiar  and  prominent 
amusement  of  the  light-hearted,  social  and  active 
French.  Word  passed  through  all  the  settlement,  of 
the  return  of  the  wanderers,  and  at  once  the  place  of 
entertainment  was  fitted  up,  and  the  arrangements 
made.  Young  and  old,  grandfather  and  grandchild, 
negro  slave  and  fair  maiden,  all  came  to  join  in 
the  festive  scene.  The  entertainment  was  regu 
lated  with  the  same  quaint  municipal  orderliness  that 
controlled  the  operations  of  tillage  and  pasturage. 
Provosts  were  appointed,  male  and  female  ;  usually 
some  well-respected  grandsire  and  grandam  had 
charge  of  the  ceremonial,  saw  that  every  lady  was 
danced  with  and  that  every  gentleman  had  his  part 
ner,  that  the  negro  slaves  enjoyed  their  rightful  equal 
share  of  liberty  within  the  room,  that  even  the  little 
children  had  opportunity  to  frisk  through  their  share 
of  the  dance  among  the  rest ;  and  thus  all  passed  in 
nocently  and  gaily.  At  a  given  hour  the  company 
separated,  and,  joyous  and  satisfied,  all  went  home. 
The  ball-room  was  often  graced  by  the  reverend  pre 
sence  of  the  priest  of  the  village — for  his  simple  pa 
rishioners  had  no  social  amusements  which  he  could 
not  approve  and  witness — and  in  these  rustic  gaieties 
there  was  a  degree  of  propriety  and  dignity — I  might 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  14:3 

almost  say  of  decency — which  it  would  be  hard  to 
match,  I  fancy,  in  the  ball-room  of  our  own  more  in 
telligently  Christian  and  more  elaborately  civilized 
society. 

Other  balls  they  had,  with  somewhat  more  of  cere 
monious  observance.  On  New  Year's  Eve,  the  young 
men  of  the  village  patrolled  the  town  in  the  costume 
of  beggars,  and  entering  the  cottages  in  which  dwelt 
the  fairest  maidens,  petitioned  for  bread.  Being  well 
feasted  and  entertained,  they  then  extended  an  invi 
tation  to  each  hospitable  damsel  for  the  dance  to-mor 
row  evening.  This  was  the  inauguration  of  the  festi 
val  of  the  coming  year.  About  the  8th  of  that 
month,  great  cakes  were  baked,  and  in  these  were 
carefully  deposited  four  beans.  The  cakes  were  cut, 
and  the  gentlemen  to  whose  share  fell  the  pieces  with 
beans  in  them,  were  called  kings.  These  four  bean- 
kings  selected  four  queens,  and  the  queens  then  se 
lected  the  kings  of  the  next  ball  that  was  to  be  given. 
At  its  close,  the  lady  queens  of  the  occasion  selected 
four  other  gentlemen,  whom  they  elected  to  the  honor 
of  this  shadowy  kingship,  inaugurating  them  with  all 
due  solemnity,  by  the  granting  of  a  kiss.  These  gen 
tlemen  inaugurated  other  ladies  by  the  same  interest 
ing  process,  and  they  became  the  regulators  and  go 
vernors  of  the  following  ball.  And  this,  the  "  King- 
Ball,"  as  it  has  been  called,  has  been  kept  up,  and 
still  is,  through  all  these  years ;  and  if  you  ever  travel 


14:4:  PIONEERS,    PEEACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

in  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  stop  at  the  ancient  town 
of  Yincennes,  and  there  have  a  friend  or  acquaint 
ance  who  can  introduce  you  to  the  French  society  of 
the  place,  you  may,  on  a  given  evening  of  almost  any 
week  in  the  calendar  year,  have  an  opportunity  of 
attending  the  king  ball ;  for  it  has  never  been  allowed 
to  pass  out  of  fashion  from  the  early  settlement  of 
Illinois  down  to  the  present  writing. 

These  people,  with  their  kind  and  simple  habits, 
easily  fraternized  with  the  Indians,  and  although 
there  was  great  difference  between  them  and  those 
original  owners  of  the  soil,  by  reason  of  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  condition,  their  differences  seemed 
to  relate  and  ally  them  more  intimately  to  each  other 
than  white  and  red  men  were  ever  allied  on  this  con 
tinent  before.  To  the  honor  of  both  parties  let  it  be 
said,  there  was  scarce  ever  a  fraud,  a  quarrel,  or  a 
murder  between  the  French  and  Indians  upon  the 
soil  of  Illinois  ;  and  it  constitutes,  in  this  particular, 
the  one  only  grand  exception,  saving  the  enterprise 
of  Friend  William  Penn  in  the  establishment  of  his 
City  of  Brotherly  Love.  And  there,  even,  as  soon  as 
the  good  Penn  himself  had  passed  away,  and  the 
equally  good,  if  not  better,  James  Logan,  who  after 
him  came  into  the  dignity  of  Secretary  of  the  Colony 
of  Pennsylvania — so  soon  as  their  official  sway  and 
authoritative  influence  was  gone,  the  Quakers  were 
found  to  the  full  as  overbearing,  unjust,  avaricious, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  145 

careless,  and  regardless  of  the  good  of  the  natives, 
as  the  Puritan  Fathers  of  New  England.  But  these 
Frenchmen  of  Illinois,  singularly  enough  it  seems  to 
the  student  of  American  history,  in  all  their  inter 
course  with  the  Indians  treated  them  like  human 
beings  and  equals  in  every  respect,  and  received  the 
kind  and  faithful  treatment  which  was  the  natural 
result,  in  turn.  The  friendly  and  trustful  reciprocity 
of  benefits,  the  intimate  neighborly  communion,  be 
tween  these  forest  Frenchmen  and  forest  Indians, 
constitutes  one  of  the  few  beautiful  pages  in  the 
record  of  American  colonization,  usually  so  dry  and 
barren,  or  so  blood-stained  and  full  of  miseries. 

And  thus,  in  that  pleasant  untroubled  far-off  land, 
and  except  for  their  happy  family  relation  and  the 
wise  separate  ownership  of  their  lands,  holding  their 
property  in  common,  sheltered  almost  like  children 
under  the  mild  influence  of  the  good  priests  to 
whom,  as  to  a  father,  they  told  all  their  sweet  confi 
dences  of  love,  or  their  little  sorrows  and  troubles, 
resting  in  sunshine,  and  far  from  wars  and  disturb 
ance,  beneath  the  broad  banner  with  the  lilies  that 
streamed  from  the  battlements  of  the  old  fort :  thus 
was  enacted  this  brief  poem  of  the  ages,  this  Idyl  of 
America.  This  atmosphere  of  rural  freshness,  of  de 
lightful  confidence,  of  unrestrained  liberty,  free  from 
the  sordid,  troubled,  eager  haste  of  trade,  the  harden 
ing  touch  of  avarice,  the  gnawing  tooth  of  care — 


146  PIONEEKS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

passed  so  far  backward  toward  that  lovely  dream, 
the  Golden  Age,  that  in  truth  and  reality  it  began  to 
reproduce  the  lengthening  of  days,  always  a  feature 
in  the  limning  of  that  ancient  legend.  These  people, 
it  seemed,  would  have  come  to  live  forever,  if  forever 
were  a  possible  term  on  earth. 

And  why  should  they  grow  old  ?  It  is  care  that 
wears  us  all  out.  We  struggle  beneath  burdens  in 
expressible.  Anxiety,  with  terrific  plough,  scars 
dreadful  furrows  over  brow  and  cheek ;  worn  out  and 
weary,  the  springs  of  life  exhausted,  and  desire  even 
all  but  dead,  we  tremble  on  the  verge  of  the  grave 
at  the  age  of  fifty  or  sixty.  Yet  the  French  in  Illi 
nois  retained  good  spirits,  physical  elasticity,  and 
exceeding  animation,  to  the  age  of  ninety,  one  hun 
dred,  one  hundred  and  ten,  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty ;  and  such  cases  you  may  find  even  now  in 
Attakapas,  Opelousas,  or  Bayou  Lafourche,  the 
French  Creole  regions  of  Louisiana. 

Thus  went  their  lives  kindly  and  cheerily  by, 
though  with  no  impulse,  little  enterprise,  no  inspira 
tions  ;  and  though  it  was  perhaps  but  a  droning 
life — no  contribution  to  the  accumulated  treasures  of 
the  ages,  no  exemplification  of  a  stern  struggle  for 
principle,  nor  of  a  mighty  aspiration  and  effort  for 
the  ideals  of  the  race — yet  it  was  such  a  sunny,  peace 
ful  life,  so  quietly,  brightly  joyous  with  the  genial 
play  of  benign  feelings,  of  the  kindly  social  faculties 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  147 

of  our  nature,  as  gladdens  us  to  look  upon.  We 
must  long,  sometimes,  to  escape  out  of  the  mighty 
rushing  current  of  our  civilized  life,  and  to  rest 
awhile  upon  some  green  island  like  this,  where  God's 
heaven  hath  not  a  cloud,  where  storm  and  tempest 
are  unknown,  where  the  still  waters  around  us  have 
not  a  ripple  on  their  surface. 

Thus  were  they  living,  missionaries,  fur-traders, 
voyageurs,  farmers,  simply  and  innocently,  in  honest 
labor  and  harmless  enjoyments,  in  the  year  1719 
or  1720.  A  sort  of  border  war  was  then  carried 
on  between  the  French  in  Louisiana  under  their 
great  leader,  Bienville,  and  the  Spanish  viceroyalty 
of  Mexico.  Offended  at  the  rapid  daring  with  which 
the  French  were  pushing  their  explorations  and 
planting  their  outposts  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
toward  the  great  Santa  Fe  trail,  which  had  even 
then  been  opened  by  traders,  they  secretly  organ 
ized  a  great  expedition  at  Santa  Fe,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  exterminating  such  of  the  French  settlements 
on  the  upper  Mississippi  as  they  could  reach,  and 
substituting  Spanish  colonies  instead ;  to  which  end 
were  sent  priests,  artificers  and  women,  property 
and  domestic  animals,  all  the  materials  for  a  new 
establishment.  Their  plan  of  operations  was  to  join 
forces  with  the  Osage  Indians,  and  in  concert  with 
them,  first  to  exterminate  their  enemies  the  Mis- 
souries,  the  allies  of  the  French,  and  then  to  quench 


14:8  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

the  light  of  the  flourishing  settlements  in  a  storm 
of  blood  and  fire,  and  plant  instead  the  standard 
of  Spain. 

After  a  long  desert  march  of  nine  hundred  miles 
across  the  plains  which  have  of  late  years  become 
so  familiar  to  us,  they  reached  that  recent  battle 
ground  of  politics,  the  upland  prairie  country  of 
Kansas,  the  supposed  abode  of  their  expected  allies, 
the  Osages.  By  a  strange  fortune,  they  fell  in 
with  their  intended  victims,  the  Missouries,  instead, 
who  spoke  the  same  language  with  the  Osages  ;  and 
confident  of  their  men,  at  once  revealed  to  them 
the  plan  for  the  total  destruction  of  their  tribe. 
The  imperturbable  savages  received  the  startling 
news  with  no  sign  of  surprise,  signified  their  appro 
bation  of  the  scheme,  requested  two  days  to  assemble 
their  warriors,  and  took  their  measures  in  savage 
secrecy.  They  drew  from  the  Spaniards  full  details 
of  the  plan,  and  in  character  of  the  Osages  received 
the  ample  supplies  of  ammunition  and  more  than  a 
hundred  guns,  destined  for  their  own  slaughter. 

And  now  the  next  morning  was  to  witness  the 
setting  forth  of  the  joint  expedition.  But  to  the 
treacherous  and  self-deluded  Spaniards  that  morning 
never  came.  In  the  night  the  Missouries  rose  up  and 
smote  their  invaders  and  slew  them,  until  but  one 
living  soul  was  left — a  Jesuit  priest,  whom  they  sent 
back  to  Santa  Fe  with  the  doleful  tidings. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  149 

Though  thus  providentially  preserved,  this  nine 
hundred  miles'  march  awakened  the  apprehensions  of 
the  French  for  their  distant  settlements  in  Illinois 
and  on  the  upper  Mississippi ;  and  they  promptly 
erected  Fort  Orleans,  on  an  island  in  the  Missouri 
above  the  mouth  of  the  Osage  River ;  and  for  the 
immediate  defence  of  the  Illinois  settlements,  that 
dignified  and  famous  stronghold  already  mentioned, 
Fort  Chartres.  This  fortress  was  completed  during 
the  year  1720.  It  was  placed  about  a  mile  and  a 
half  from  the  Mississippi  River,  within  the  great 
American  Bottom  which  we  have  already  described, 
near  the  five  chief  villages  of  the  Illinois  country — 
Ivaskaskia,  Cahokia,  Prairie  de  Rocher,  St.  Philip, 
and  St.  Genevieve,  which  last  alone  was  west  of 
the  Great  River.  To  these  was  soon  added  the  vil 
lage  of  Fort  Chartres,  which  grew  up  under  the 
walls  of  the  fort. 

This  redoubted  fortress,  long  the  strongest  garrison 
on  the  North  American  continent,  occupied  an  irre 
gular  square  of  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  to 
the  side.  Its  walls  were  of  solid  masonry,  three  feet 
thick  and  fifteen  feet  high.  Its  ramparts  were  de 
fended  by  twenty  great  guns ;  and  such  was  its 
strength  and  armament,  that  it  was  impregnable  to 
any  force  then  available  against  it.  Here,  for  forty 
years,  was  the  centre  of  the  French  power  in  Illinois, 
the  key  of  all  the  land,  an  important  link  of  the  great 


150  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

chain  of  fortresses  between  Quebec  and  New  Orleans ; 
the  residence  of  the  French  commandant ;  the  metro 
polis  of  the  gaiety  and  fashion  of  all  the  country 
round  :  as  an  old  Illinois  chronicler,  with  pardonable 
local  enthusiasm,  calls  it,  "  the  Paris  of  America." 
But,  alas  for  the  brief  duration  of  human  prosperity  ! 
In  1765,  the  last  French  commandant  of  the  Illinois, 
M.  St.  Ange  de  Bellerive,  formally  gave  up  the  fort 
and  his  authority  into  the  hands  of  the  British  captain, 
Sterling.  And  all  this  time,  the  capricious,  mighty 
flood  of  the  Mississippi  was  silently  marching  across 
from  the  westward,  arraying  against  its  strong  walls 
powers  not  to  be  opposed  by  great  guns  nor  by  regi 
ments  of  armed  men.  Steadily  the  eating  flood 
swept  nearer  and  nearer,  and  presently — in  1YT2 — 
two  bastions  were  undermined.  The  English  disman 
tled  and  deserted  the  old  fort.  Fifty  years  ago,  part 
of  its  site  had  been  swept  away  by  the  devouring 
river,  and  it  was  a  venerable  ruin,  solitary  and  over 
grown  with  wild  vines  and  with  trees,  some  a  foot  in 
diameter. 

The  Spanish  invasion  had  long  passed  by ;  and  under 
the  kindly  despotic  patriarchate  of  the  commandant  in 
Fort  Chartres,  and  of  the  little  village  senates  of  old 
men,  in  the  beauteous  prairie  land — where  the  land 
lies  rolling  like  the  billows  of  the  sea,  heaved  in  gen 
tle  undulations  beneath  the  summer  sun,  studded 
with  groves  like  islands  far  out  on  the  deep,  carpeted 


OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  151 

with  flowers  that  lend  their  rich  fragrance  to  the  air 
until  for  sweetness  you  seem  to  be  walking  in  Para 
dise,  where  all  that  is  around  gladdens  the  senses  and 
rejoices  the  heart — the  French  colonists  lie  down  and 
rise  up  without  fear  or  guile,  thinking  no  evil  against 
any,  and  themselves  without  apprehension  of  incur 
sion  of  savage,  attack  from  hostile  army,  or  any  rob 
bery  or  theft  or  fraud.  Here  life  is  serene  as  if  man 
were  never  driven  out  of  Eden,  and  the  flaming  che 
rubim  stationed  at  the  gate  with  his  terrific  sword. 

But  far  away  beyond  the  mountains  is  gathering 
the  storm  of  war,  which  is  to  transfer  all  this  vast  val 
ley  from  French  to  English  hands,  and  to  substitute 
for  the  bright,  peaceful  happiness  which  I  have  striven 
to  depict,  the  rough  and  passionate  cupidity  of  the 
Anglo-American  backwoodsman — the  violent  sway  of 
arms.  The  English  settlers,  eager  after  the  magnifi 
cent  lands  beyond  the  Alleghanies,  are  slowly  steal 
ing  over  the  ridge ;  and  military  detachments,  and 
families,  and  single  hunters,  push  westward  into  the 
great  valley.  The  French  have  long  been  steadfastly 
advancing  the  design  conceived  by  La  Salle  almost  a 
hundred  years  before ;  and  from  Quebec  to  "New  Or 
leans  the  vast  girdle  of  fortresses  and  confederate  na 
tions,  at  once  held  together  and  made  accessible  by 
the  wondrous  highway  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the 
Great  Biver,  is  almost  complete,  keyed  by  the  great 
metropolitan  stronghold  of  Fort  Chartres,  and  lack- 


152  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

ing  but  one  or  two  more  fortresses  between  that  and 
New  Orleans. 

That  mighty  and  terrible  confederation,  the  Six 
Nations,  has  long  resisted  the  furious  attacks  of 
Onondio,  the  great  French  captain,  and  governor  of 
Canada;  has  kept  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  unknown 
and  inaccessible  to  their  missionaries,  their  traders, 
and  their  settlers ;  and  has,  for  the  most  part,  nega 
tively  or  positively,  been  ranged  on  the  side  of  the 
English.  Some  of  their  young  men,  on  distant  scout 
ing  parties,  have  seen  large  bodies  of  French  troops 
moving  up  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  They 
bring  the  news  home ;  and  in  the  great  confederate 
senate-house  at  Onondaga  a  council  of  the  Six  Na 
tions  is  held,  to  consider  the  important  information. 
It  is  resolved  to  send  the  tidings  to  the  Governors  of 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Virginia,  and  it  is 
done.  But  these  great  men  are  little  inclined  to  be 
stir  themselves ;  they  are  busied  in  squabbling  with 
the  provincial  assemblies,  or  they  are  at  ease,  and 
would  fain  be  left  "  in  their  lazy  dignities  " — all  but 
Governor  Dinwiddie,  of  Virginia,  an  able,  shrewd, 
stirring  Scotchman,  who  sees  at  once  the  importance 
of  the  juncture.  The  troops  now  pushing  up  the  St. 
Lawrence,  are  destined  to  occupy  and  hold  for  the 
French  king  the  valley  of  the  Ohio — for  notwith 
standing  the  Mississippi  had  been  explored  a  hundred 
years  before,  and  routes  had  long  been  open  between 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  153 

Quebec  and  JSTew  Orleans,  by  way  of  the  Illinois  and 
Wabash,  it  was  not  until  about  1Y40  that  the  Ohio, 
above  the  "Wabash,  had  been  even  explored  by  the 
French.  The  present  scheme  is  to  move  by  way  of 
Niagara  across  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Alleghany, 
to  occupy  thence  downward  all  the  valley  of  the 
Ohio,  and  in  course  of  time  to  secure  the  whole  land 
close  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  confine  the  grow 
ing  English  settlements  to  the  narrow  belt  between 
the  Alleghanies  and  the  sea. 

The  Six  Nations  send  the  French  commander  a 
message  of  entreaty,  remonstrance,  and  threats.  But 
these  are  treated  with  contempt,  and  the  standard  of 
France  moves  forward.  Governor  Dinwiddie  sends 
a  messenger  to  ask  the  French  what  is  their  design  in 
thus  entering  the  valley  of  the  Ohio — of  the  Beauti 
ful  River,  as  the  French  boatmen  call  it.  "  For," 
say  the  English,  "  all  the  land  is  ours,  from  the  stormy 
Atlantic  across  to  the  peaceful  sea  on  the  west ;  be 
cause" — admirable  logic! — "our  countrymen  first 
settled  the  eastern  shore.  We  deny  the  claim  of  the 
French  to  the  Mississippi  valley,  founded  on  the  de 
scent  of  its  chief  water-course,  the  river,"  by  "  one 
La  Salle,"  as  "Washington  called  him. 

Yet  the  title  by  which  the  English  held  the  Atlan 
tic  slope  was  no  better,  if  even  as  good,  as  that  of  the 
French  to  the  great  inland  valley.  The  only  Eng 
lishman  who  had  entered  that  valley  before  1740  was 

7* 


154:  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

Captain  Barre,  the  agent  of  Dr.  Daniel  Coxe,  proprie 
tor  of  New  Jersey,  who  entered  the  Mississippi  River 
from  its  mouth  in  a  corvette  of  twelve  guns.  Stem 
ming  the  deep  and  muddy  current,  all  at  once  the 
English  captain  is  hailed  from  a  small  boat  that  meets 
him  in  one  of  the  reaches  of  the  river.  A  lad  of 
twenty-one,  in  command  of  the  skiff — it  is  Bienville, 
then  and  long  after  the  Governor  of  Louisiana  for  the 
French  king — stands  up  and  addresses  Captain  Barre'. 
The  truth  is,  that  his  army  is  with  him  in  that  little 
boat,  and  he  has  scarce  a  better  weapon  than  his 
naked  hand,  for  he  is  on  an  exploring  expedition,  not 
a  conquering  one.  Yet  he  hails  as  sternly  as  if  the 
commander  of  regiments  and  embattled  forts.  "  Turn 
about,"  he  orders,  "  and  go  down  the  river  !  I  am 
loth  to  harm  you,  but  if  you  go  beyond  the  next 
bend,  I  have  guns  enough  in  position  there  to  blow 
you  out  of  the  water,  and  I  will  do  it !"  The  daunted 
Englishman,  believing  every  word,  obeys,  and  es 
capes  with  his  sloop-of-war,  as  fast  as  he  can,  from 
the  boy  and  his  boat's  crew ;  and  to  this  day  the  point 
in  the  river  where  he  retreated  is  called  the  English 

O 

Turn.  This  was  the  only  entrance  of  the  English 
into  the  Mississippi  Yalley  until  Dr.  Walker's  first 
exploring  expedition  over  the  Cumberland  Mountains, 
about  1748. 

What  right  had  either  nation  to  these  lands  ?     Said 
an  old  Delaware  to  an  English  partisan,  "  The  king 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  155 

of  France  claims  all  the  lands  one  side  of  the  Ohio, 
and  the  king  of  England  all  on  the  other  side.  Now, 
where  are  the  Indian's  lands  f"  And  the  confounded, 
backwoodsman  was  speechless.  The  red  men  owned 
the  lands.  Neither  Onondio  nor  Corlear — ^either 
Englishman  nor  Frenchman,  had  the  shadow  of  any 
claim  to  a  foot  of  land  in  the  valley  of  the  Missis 
sippi. 

But  of  all  this  the  shrewd  Scotch  governor  of  Vir 
ginia  neither  thinks  nor  cares.  He  rests  satisfied 
upon  the  usual  claim  by  discovery,  and  is  the  more 
certain  of  the  justice  of  his  country's  pretensions 
because  his  own  estates  in  forest  lands  depend  thereon. 
So  he  inquires  by  the  mouth  of  his  messenger,  one 
Major  "Washington  of  the  Yirginia  provincial  forces, 
what  does  the  king  of  France  mean,  and  what  do  his 
servants  of  Canada  mean,  by  thus  presuming  to  in 
trude  upon  undoubted  English  territory  in  the  Ohio 
valley?  The  young  major  of  course  receives  a  curt 
though  courteous  reply,  and  carries  it  back  to  those 
who  sent  him. 

ISTot,  however,  to  let  the  affair  rest ;  for  their  glow 
ing  zeal  for  the  pretensions  of  his  Britannic  majesty 
is  intensified  and  made  practical  by  their  own.  For 
the  Ohio  Company  of  Yirginia  has  received  a  gift — 
no  matter  though  the  king  who  gave  it  did  not  own 
it — of  six  hundred  thousand  acres  of  the  best  land 
west  of  the  mountains ;  and  in  this  company,  two 


156  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AJSD    PEOPLE 

elder  brothers  of  our  youthful  provincial  major,  and 
Governor  Dinwiddie,  are  principal  shareholders.  If 
the  French  hold  the  Ohio  valley,  these  present  broad 
domains  on  earth,  and  still  fairer  future  castles  in  the 
air,  will  alike  disappear,  and  great  prospective  gains 
will  be  lost.  This,  I  hasten  to  add,  is  said  without 
meaning  to  impute  any  sinister  motives  to  George 
Washington.  He  sincerely  believed  in  the  English 
claim,  and  in  his  own  and  his  friends'  property  ;  and 
he  would  have  been  more  than  human  if  these  pecu 
niary  interests  had  not  reinforced  the  alacrity  which 
he  would,  no  doubt,  have  shown  in  the  cause  if  he 
had  never  owned  a  foot  of  Ohio  land,  nor  expected  to. 
He  returns,  at  any  rate,  in  1754,  now  promoted  to 
the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel,  and  in  command  of  a 
small  body  of  troops,  to  arrest  the  progress  of  the 
French,  who  have  commenced  actual  hostilities  by 
taking  from  the  English  (in  April,  1754)  a  small 
stockade  fort  in  the  forks  of  the  Alleghany  and  Mo- 
nongahela  Rivers,  and  by  beginning  a  stronger  and 
more  serviceable  fortress  in  its  place,  which  they  call 
Fort  Duquesne,  in  honor  of  the  governor-general  of 
Canada.  "Washington  crosses  Laurel  Ridge,  and 
gains  the  Great  Meadows,  a  pleasant  open  spot  some 
fifty  miles  southeast  of  the  new  French  stronghold. 
Here  he  learns  from  an  old  friend  and  companion  in 
forest  journeys,  one  Christopher  Gist,  settled  near  by, 
and  from  the  half-king  of  the  Delawares,  Tanachari- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  157 

son,  that  a  party  of  French  are  in  his  neighborhood, 
with  warlike  intentions.  His  Indian  allies  search 
them  out,  and  about  sunrise  he  discovers  them  en 
camped  in  a  retired  and  secret  place  among  the 
rocks.  Discerning  the  tall  form  of  the  Virginian 
advancing  from  among  the  trees,  and  the  troops 
behind  him,  they  spring  to  arms,  and  at  once 
commence  a  vigorous  fire  upon  the  English.  But 
being  surrounded  and  outnumbered,  ten  of  them, 
including  their  commander,  M.  de  Jumonville,  are 
killed,  and  the  remainder  made  prisoners. 

That  brief  command,  "  Fire  !"  echoed  all  over  the 
earth.  That  scattering  blaze  of  musketry  among  an 
obscure  pile  of  wild  rocks  beneath  the  western  Alle- 
ghanies,  kindled  a  conflagration  that  spread  through 
out  the  continent  of  Europe,  as  fire  runs  through  the 
dry  prairie-grass  in  autumn  time  ;  and  burned  even 
on  the  far  shores  of  Asia.  It  was  the  beginning  of 
the  Seven  Years'  War,  a  struggle  which  called  forth 
the  genius  of  Pitt  as  a  minister  and  parliamentarian, 
and  of  Frederic  the  Great  as  a  warrior  ;  which  crushed 
the  doctrine  of  legitimacy  in  France  ;  and  which, 
under  the  over-ruling  of  Him  who  sees  the  end  from 
the  beginning,  not  as  man  ordereth,  but  who  maketh 
the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  Him,  did  more  to  elevate 
the  masses  of  the  population  of  Europe,  and  to  pre 
pare  the  way  for  the  freedom  and  independence  of 
our  own  country,  than  all  other  causes  together. 


158  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

The  war  thus  fairly  commenced,  Jumonville's 
brother,  De  Yilliers,  commandant  at  Fort  Chartres, 
hastens  eastward  to  revenge  his  brother's  death,  and 
finds  Lieutenant-Colonel  Washington  still  in  the 
neighborhood,  opening  a  military  road  for  troops  ex 
pected  from  Virginia.  The  Frenchman  came  upon 
him  with  double  his  forces,  but  declining  the  battle 
which  the  bold  young  commander  offered  in  the  open 
ground  before  the  fort  which  he  had  constructed,  he 
laid  siege  to  the  small  and  ill-provisioned  stockade, 
which,  with  a  judgment  giving  little  promise  of  his 
after  wisdom,  Washington  had  planted  in  low  ground, 
where  it  was  commanded  and  almost  thoroughly 
raked  from  the  secure  covert  of  the  wooded  ridges  on 
either  side.  An  attack  was  soon  commenced,  and 
after  nine  hours  of  sharp  firing,  during  which  thirty 
of  the  garrison  were  killed  and  three  wounded,  the 
French  commander,  afraid  that  his  ammunition  would 
fail,  allowed  Washington  to  capitulate  and  retire  east 
of  the  mountains  with  all  the  honors  of  war ;  the 
articles  of  capitulation,  which  were  in  French,  by 
means  of  the  ignorance  or  treachery  of  the  inter 
preter,  admitting  the  death  of  Jumonville  to  be  an 
"  assassination,"  and  promising  that  no  further  estab 
lishments  should  be  attempted  west  of  the  mountains 
for  the  term  of  one  year.  This  obligation  was  not 
taken  to  be  binding. 

Then  comes  the  expedition  of  General  Edward 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  159 

Braddock,  whose  liot-headed  valor,  absurd  rontinism, 
and  arrogant  conceit,  we  all  know  ;  as  well  as  the  in 
conceivable  obstinate  folly  with  which  he  persisted 
in  trying  to  dress  ranks,  and  form  by  platoons,  there 
among  the  forests,  "as  if  manoeuvring  his  troops  upon 
the  plains  of  Flanders ;"  and  the  genuine  English 
pride  and  stubbornness  with  which  he  refused  to  take 
advice  from  the  provincials,  experienced  in  bush- 
ranging  and  Indian  fighting;  and  how  the  hard- 
headed  fool  thus  threw  away  his  own  life,  and  the  lives 
of  three  hundred  better  men,  great  treasures  wasted 
to  no  purpose,  with  the  certain  prospect  of  taking 
Fort  Duquesne ;  for  nothing  was  further  from  the 
minds  of  the  French  and  Indians  than  a  victory,  and 
they  were  on  the  point  of  evacuating  the  fort. 

And  now,  in  good  season,  the  Great  Commoner, 
William  Pitt,  takes  the  helm  of  English  aifairs. 
"  What  are  we  to  do  ?'?  cries  Chesterfield ;  u  abroad 
reverses  and  disgrace ;  at  home,  poverty  and  bank 
ruptcy — what  are  we  to  do  ?"  In  America,  the 
French  line  of  midland  forts  was  steadily  and  rapidly 
closing  in  behind  the  belt  of  English  settlements 
along  the  sea.  In  India,  the  other  side  of  the  world, 
Dupleix  had  laid  at  Pondicherry  the  foundations  of  a 
power  which  promised  quicky  to  exterminate  the  timid 
traders  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  to  bring  the 
oriental  wealth  and  the  swarming  millions  of  Hindos- 
tan  beneath  the  power  of  France.  In  the  Mediterra- 


160  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES    AND    PEOPLE 

nean,  Minorca  was  taken  by  the  French  forces  under 
the  Duke  de  Kichelien.  On  the  continent  of  Europ^ 
the  single  ally  of  England,  of  any  power,  Frederic  of 
Prussia,  was  attacked  at  once  by  the  three  vast  em 
pires  of  Austria,  France,  and  Russia,  and  that  in  a 
quarrel  where  he  was  flagrantly  in  the  wrong ;  and 
the  English  king's  own  hereditary  dominions  of  Ha 
nover  w^ere  overrun  by  French  troops.  The  tremen 
dous  energy,  the  pride,  the  rapid  decision  and  daring 
of  the  great  minister,  inspired  fleets,  armies,  the  whole 
nation.  From  being  sullen,  gloomy,  discouraged, 
fearful,  they  became,  in  a  year  or  two,  daring,  high- 
spirited,  fearless,  and  enterprising,  almost  beyond  the 
bounds  of  human  belief  or  human  capacity.  Under 
his  strong,  haughty,  and  energetic  direction,  the  stout 
Prussian  king  is  brought  safely  through  his  terrific 
war  ;  Hanover  is  cleared  of  the  French  ;  the  coalition 
between  Russia,  Austria,  and  France  is  shattered ; 
the  victories  of  Olive  and  Lawrence  eradicate  the 
very  foundations  of  the  French  empire  in  Hindostan, 
and  lay  the  corner  stone  of  the  vast  dominion  of 
British  India.  In  America,  the  brave  ~New  England 
hosts  take  the  stronghold  of  Louisbourg,  and  the  gal 
lant  Wolfe,  scaling  the  heights  of  Abraham,  as  it  were 
buys  with  his  heart's  blood  the  victory  over  Mont- 
calm  and  the  surrender  of  the  great  French  citadel  of 
Quebec.  An  irresistible  flood  of  British  conquest 
sweeps  round  and  round  the  world  ;  and  the  humbled 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  161 

monarch  of  France,  making  peace  in  the  year  1763, 
^pields  up  to  Great  Britain  all  Canada,  and  all  Louis 
iana  east  of  the  Mississippi,  excepting  only  the  dis 
trict  and  city  of  'New  Orleans,  which,  with  all  the 
rest  of  Louisiana,  is  given  to  the  Spaniards,  by  a  pri 
vate  treaty  made  with  Spain  the  year  before. 

Thus  this  great  garden  land,  this  granary  for  the 
nations,  this  home  for  that  better  time  coming,  tc 
which  we  all  look  forward  with  such  longings  and 
such  love,  passes  from  the  grasp  of  hereditary  mon 
archy,  of  the  ancient  French  divine-right  rulers,  from 
under  the  heavy  shadow  of  dead  mediaeval  law  and 
dying  feudal  tenures,  into  the  hands  of  England  and 
of  Spain.  Not,  however,  into  their  hands  as  in  fee  ; 
not  in  permanent  proprietorship  ;  but  in  trust,  for  the 
future  use  and  behoof  of  a  people  whose  career,  as 
we  hope,  shall  fulfill  in  the  near  future  the  dreams  of 
the  long  past,  and  realize  that  golden  time  of  the 
world's  history  which  the  prophets  saw  in  shadow, 
which  the  poets  have  told  in  broken  words  and  vain 
aspirations  after  adequate  expression,  which  all  good 
men  pray  for  and  look  for ;  the  period  when  the  trust 
worthiness  of  the  people  shall  be  vindicated  by  their 
righteousness  ;  when  the  true  equality  of  the  nation 
shall  be  found,  not  in  levelling  those  above,  but  in  the 
rising  of  those  below,  by  a  celestial  gravitation,  to 
the  level  of  the  highest ;  when  humanity,  free,  edu 
cated,  justified,  the  Bible  in  its  hand  and  the  love  of 


162  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE. 

God  in  its  heart,  and  led  by  His  Holy  Spirit,  shall 
stand  as  upon  a  lofty  mountain  summit  of  attainment^ 
not  upon  a  ghastly  peak  of  cold  sterility  and  eternal 
ice,  but  where  the  smile  of  God  makes  summer  sun 
shine,  and  God's  love  makes  all  the  air  benign; 
where  all  humanity  is  bound  up  together  in  the  bun 
dle  of  God,  in  bonds  of  brotherly  love  and  kindness. 


Lecture  IV. 
THE     RED     MEIST; 


AND    THE 


WAR    OF    POJSTTIAC. 


168 


THE  KED  MEN,  AND  WAK  OF  PONTIAC. 

AT  the  commencement  of  Europe's  acquaintance 
with  the  Indians  this  side  the  Mississippi,  so  far  as  we 
can  calculate,  from  180,000  to  300,000  of  the  red 
men  occupied  that  tract  of  country  now  included 
within  the  limits  of  our  republic,  and  lying  between 
the  Atlantic  and  the  Father  of  "Waters.  These  abo 
riginal  tribes  were  divided  into  three  families — the 
Algonquins,  the  Iroquois,  and  the  Mobilian  races. 
The  Mobilians  occupied  the  region  of  country  lying 
south  of  the  Ohio  River  and  east  of  the  Mississippi, 
including  the  States  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  western 
Georgia,  western  South  Carolina,  Florida,  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  and  Louisiana.  The  Iroquois,  or  Five 
Nations,  subsequently  increased  to  six  by  the  addi 
tion  of  the  Tuscaroras,  who  migrated  from  western 
Carolina,  dwelt  in  the  western  part  of  New  York. 
The  remainder  of  the  country  was  occupied  by  the 
tribes  of  that  great  family  known  as  the  Algonquins. 
"Whilst  there  were  certain  tribal  peculiarities,  certain 
distinctive  features,  marking  and  separating  these 
tribes,  they  yet  shared  traits  and  features  in  common, 
showing  them  to  belong,  all  of  them,  to  one  great 


165 


166  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES    AND   PEOPLE 

parent  stock.  Their  manners  and  customs,  their 
views  and  opinions,  modes  of  action  and  forms  of 
speech,  afford  us  perfectly  reliable  evidences  of  this. 

The  Indian  is  the  child  of  the  wilderness,  born 
amidst  its  rugged  grandeurs,  cradled  amidst  its 
storms,  surrounded  with  its  vastness,  schooled  by  it 
from  his  earliest  infancy  in  the  development  of  his  per 
ceptive  faculties,  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  his  rea 
soning  powers ;  employed  in  those  occupations  which 
develop  athletic  strength  of  body,  the  chase,  war,  pre 
datory  incursions  upon  his  neighbors ;  seeking  his 
food  from  boundless  hunting-grounds.  Nurtured  in 
a  school  like  this,  the  delicacy  of  his  senses  has 
passed  into  a  proverb  ;  and  he  acquired  such  fineness 
of  eye,  such  exquisiteness  of  ear,  as  is  scarce  paral 
leled  or  approximated  in  the  records  of  history. 

The  relation  between  the  parent  and  the  child 
among  the  Indians  constitutes,  it  seems  to  me,  a  pe 
culiar  feature,  and  one  marking  them  among  the  na 
tions  of  the  earth,  distinct  from  all  others.  What  is 
called  parental  authority,  was  hardly  known  among 
them.  The  child  was  brought  up  in  the  wrigwam  of 
its  parents  ;  but  they  never  expected,  so  it  seems,  to 
impose  on  it  their  authority,  their  will,  their  command. 
The  child  grew  up  his  own  master,  basking  and  sport 
ing  around  the  door  of  the  bark  lodge,  enjoying  the 
care  of  the  mother,  the  notice  of  the  father,  until, 
attaining  nearly  our  own  age  of  majority,  he  was  pre- 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  167 

pared  by  vigil,  fast,  seclusion  among  rugged  rocks  in 
the  depths  of  inaccessible  forests — tried  by  visions  and 
dreams,  and  communings  with  what  he  thought  the 
Great  Spirit — for  his  future  career  of  heroism  and 
conquest.  American  children,  carried  in  their  early 
years,  as  captives,  to  the  homes  of  the  Indians,  nur 
tured  and  trained  by  their  adopted  red  fathers  and 
mothers,  asseverate,  and  their  evidence  is  conclusive, 
that  they  have  never  seen  a  hand  raised  by  a  parent 
against  a  child — and  yet,  so  far  as  the  conditions  of 
their  iron  nature  would  permit,  such  tractableness, 
such  docility,  such  loyalty,  such  glad  and  willing 
obedience  from  children  to  parents,  is  rarely  to  be 
found  even  in  the  highest  stages  of  civilized  society. 
That  opposite  beliefs  are  current  in  the  popular  mind, 
I  well  know ;  and  that  there  are  examples  of  barba 
rous  desertion,  of  inhuman  cruelty  from  children  to 
ward  their  aged  parents,  when  the  latter  have  grown 
to  be  an  incumbrance,  this  I  know ;  but  these  are  the 
exceptions — the  other  is  the  rule. 

One  of  the  primal  elements  of  the  Indian  character 
is  hero  worship,  and  if  Mr.  Carlyle  is  intent  upon  con 
solidating  and  organizing  his  Utopian  society  upon 
this  basis,  I  know  of  no  realm  or  clime  to  which  he 
may  resort  with  such  hopes  of  success  as  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains  of  our  own  continent,  where,  among  the 
Blackfeet,  the  Sioux,  the  Apaches,  and  all  those  wan 
dering  tribes,  he  will  find  this  element  in  the  full 


168  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

grandeur  of  its  supremacy.  The  child  is  taught  it 
from  his  earliest  infancy.  When  first  he  can  inter 
pret  the  words  spoken  around  the  watch-fire,  in  the 
sombre  lodge  of  his  people  ;  when  the  grey-haired 
fathers  of  the  tribe,  in  the  long  evenings  of  the  win 
ter  time,  when  the  chase  is  no  longer  open  to  them, 
and  the  war-path  ceases  to  invite  them,  over  the  blaze 
of  their  household  fires,  relate  the  deeds  of  the  fore 
fathers  of  the  tribe,  and  tell  the  traditions  of  the  olden 
time — then  the  children  are  wont  to  listen  with  eager 
interest  to  all  these  recitals,  to  cherish  in  their  memo 
ries  and  in  their  hearts  the  admiration  of  this  older 
time,  and  to  resolve  to  emulate  their  ancestors,  and 
to  surpass,  if  possible,  their  deeds  of  prowess  and 
hardihood. 

And  these  old  chief  and  sachems,  wise  men,  held 
in  universal  reverence,  to  whom  is  paid  a  sort  of  ho 
mage,  not  only  of  the  intellect,  but  of  the  heart — 
these  old  men,  by  this  kindly  and  genial  influence 
upon  the  juvenile  character,  while  that  character  is 
yet  plastic  in  their  hands,  do  much  to  determine  its 
strength  and  scope.  Hence  the  reverent  loyalty  to 
which  I  have  referred,  from  the  younger  members  of 
the  tribe  to  the  older,  first  in  the  relation  of  child  to 
parent,  and  then,  more  generally,  in  that  of  junior  to 
senior.  And  I  fancy  that  in  these  times  of  ours,  of  ex 
citement  and  turmoil,  of  self-conceit,  arrogance  and 
presumption,  when  the  young  exaggerate  their  powers 


OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  169 

and  capabilities,  when  juvenility  is  set  in,  or  usurps, 
every  nigh  place,  when  the  young  man  takes  grey 
hairs  for  the  tokens  of  a  dotard,  and  a  wrinkled  face 
for  the  sign  of  a  driveller — feels  that  he  is  the  great 
object  on  whom  the  gaze  of  the  world,  and  in  whom 
the  hope  of  the  future,  is  concentrated— in  these  wild 
times  of  ours,  with  their  rash  enterprises,  their  fury 
and  folly,  filibustering,  factions  and  seditions— I 
fancy  that  in  this  age  of  Young  America,  many  good 
lessons  might  be  learned  from  the  Indian  ancestors 
of  the  soil,  the  red  aborigines  ;  who,  whatever  of  the 
noblest  manhood  they  lacked,  had,  at  least,  respect 
for  the  aged,  and  reverence  for  those  wiser  than 
themselves. 

In  that  wild,  unfettered,  disjointed  democracy, 
where  the  will  of  the  people — but  even  that  com 
pletely  subordinate  to  the  will  of  the  minority  or  the 
individual,  for  itself  or  himself — was  the  prominent 
source  of  power,  men  were  exalted  for  their  wisdom. 
The  aged  were  the  repositories  of  tradition,  the  re 
pertories  of  good  counsel,  the  vehicles  of  instruction ; 
they  could  not  only  tell  of  times  long  past,  of  ances 
tors  long  departed,  but  they  could  tell  the  pathways 
of  the  woods,  the  old  feuds  of  the  tribes,  the  manner 
of  leading  the  young  men  to  combat  and  to  triumph ; 
and  this  attribute  of  abstract  and  practical  wisdom 
exalted  men  to  chieftainship.  Their  sachems  or 
wise  men  were  their  leaders  in  all  matters  of  counsel 

8 


170  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES    AND   PEOPLE 

and  debate,  and  the  young  men  deferentially  listened, 
standing  around,  their  swarthy  figures  leaning  against 
the  door-posts  of  their  cabins,  or  against  some  no 
ble  tree.  "While  the  father  spoke,  the  sons  listened 
in  silence,  and  the  words  of  the  aged  fell  upon  their 
ears  and  their  hearts  like  the  dew  from  the  brow  of 
the  evening. 

There  was  another  kind  of  chieftainship,  however  ; 
another  sort  of  authority  besides  this  of  wisdom  in 
matters  of  counsel  and  debate.  Those  who  were  en 
terprising  and  dauntless,  who  burned  to  lead  their 
brethren  to  war,  could  nominate  themselves  to  a  sort 
of  temporary  chieftainship — a  war  chieftainship. 
These,  if  they  had  any  quarrel  to  settle,  any  wrong 
to  avenge,  any  hope  of  success  in  some  foray,  were 
accustomed,  after  vigil,  fast,  incantation — after  dwell 
ing  apart  until  their  features  were  harsh,  their  bodies 
shrunken,  and  they  were  reduced  halfway  to  inani 
tion, — coming  back  to  the  wigwams  of  the  nation, 
to  send  invitations  through  the  tribe,  to  all  the  young 
men  to  meet  them  at  a  festival.  Here  abundant  pro 
vision  was  spread  before  the  guests,  the  chief  dainty 
being  commonly  dog's  meat ;  and  all  must  be  dis 
patched  before  they  were  allowed  to  depart.  He  who 
had  summoned  them,  meanwhile,  sat  in  silence,  ab 
staining  from  all  gratification  of  appetite,  albeit  nearly 
famished.  When  the  festival  was  ended,  his  body 
painted  black,  he  springs  into  a  ring  prepared  for  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  171 

purpose,  in  the  centre  of  which  stands  a  blackened 
post ;  around  this  he  marches,  singing  a  sort  of  reci 
tative,  a  monotonous  cadence,  in  which  he  recounts 
the  deeds  of  his  forefathers  and  his  own  heroic 
achievements,  every  now  and  then  brandishing  his 
tomahawk  and  furiously  striking  it  into  the  post  in 
the  centre.  Thus  he  inflames  the  passions  and  imagi 
nation  of  his  audience,  till  warrior  after  warrior 
springs  into  the  ring  like  himself,  and  in  like  manner 
chants,  recites,  raves  and  strikes.  Then  rises  a  fierce 
tumultuous  clamor  of  voices  from  all,  and  when  they 
have  aroused  themselves  to  the  highest  pitch  of  frenzy, 
the  war-path  is  prepared.  Decorated  with  fanciful 
paints,  and  with  all  the  ornaments  they  can  com 
mand,  and  marching,  in  single  file,  one,  two,  or  three 
miles  from  the  village,  if  there  be  a  convenient  camp 
ing  ground  near  a  brook,  here  they  pause,  and  dis 
charge  their  guns  slowly,  one  at  a  time.  Here  they 
encamp,  and  now  the  ornaments  and  trinkets  are  ga 
thered  and  sent  back  to  the  squaws  at  the  village,  to  be 
kept  till  their  return.  Then,  in  silence,  in  single  file, 
under  the  lead  of  this  self-nominated  chieftain,  they 
proceed  upon  their  errand  of  destruction  and  blood. 
"Whatever  the  result,  when  they  return  great  rejoic 
ings  are  had  in  the  village,  or  in  the  wigwams  of  the 
nation ;  and  if  any  have  fallen,  their  manes  are  ap 
peased  by  the  sacrifice  of  such  victims  as  have  been 
captured,  their  torture  being  considered  a  lawful  and 


172  PIONEEKS,    PHEACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

even  obligatory  offering,  that  shall  satisfy  the  spirits 
of  the  dead. 

But  this  portraiture  of  Indian  character,  intended 
as  a  sort  of  introduction  to  the  theme  of  the  occasion, 
is  drawing  me  on  too  far.  I  must  hasten  to  com 
plete  the  rough  outline,  though  with  the  omission  of 
many  interesting  points.  The  leading  and  most  re 
markable  peculiarities  of  the  Indians  are,  indomitable 
resolution  and  endurance,  haughty  pride,  daring  and 
arrogance  toward  an  enemy,  a  calm  and  unmoved 
exterior,  that  hides  impenetrably  all  secrets  of 
thought  and  feeling,  as  a  mantle  of  ice  and  snow  the 
blazing  fires  of  the  volcano  beneath  ;  and  a  natural 
wild  independence,  nourished  and  confirmed  by  their 
solitary  perilous  lives ;  which,  although  they  may  act 
voluntarily  under  the  guidance  of  these  self-appointed 
chieftains,  preserves  them  unconstrained  by  any  law, 
subject  to  no  authority,  bound  to  none  by  fealty,  and 
subordinating  themselves  only  to  the  heroic  virtues 
and  preeminent  abilities  of  their  few  great  states 
men  and  warriors.  Such  salient  peculiarities,  exem 
plified,  too,  in  such  endless  displays  of  savage  hero 
ism  and  skill  and  strength,  cannot  but  open  to  the 
student  of  human  nature  a  chapter  of  absorbing  in 
terest. 

All  three  of  the  great  families,  Mobilians,  Iroquois, 
and  Algonquins,  though  the  innumerable  battles  be 
tween  and  among  themselves  sprinkled  the  whole 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  173 

continent  with  blood,  were  united  by  one  singular 
and  wide-extended  bond  of  friendship,  which  well 
deserves  a  short  consideration.  This  was  that  sort 
of  free-masonry,  or  association  into  fraternities,  which 
may  be  called  the  Totemic,  as  depending  upon  the 
signs  or  emblems  of  these  families,  called  their 
Totems.  Such  emblems  were  the  Hawk,  the  Eagle, 
the  Tortoise,  the  Bear,  the  Wolf,  the  Snake.  And  as 
these  associations  were  limited  neither  to  one  nation 
nor  set  of  nations,  so  we  find,  for  instance,  a  family 
of  the  Wind,  among  both  Mobilians  and  Iroquois ; 
a  family  of  the  Tortoise,  both  among  the  Iroquois 
and  the  Algonquins. 

The  brotherhood  of  the  totem  bound  its  mem 
bers,  whether  in  peace  or  war,  to  aid  and  comfort 
each  other  in  whatever  need.  The  lonely  wanderer, 
weary  and  starving  after  a  long  and  unsuccessful 
chase,  could  never  ask  in  vain  for  relief  and  ad- 
mitance  at  the  cabin  of  one  of  his  brethren  of  the 
totem,  however  far  removed  his  language,  tribe,  or 
blood.  This  singular  association  a  little  alleviated 
the  many  horrors  of  the  constant  warfare  of  the 
hunters  of  the  woods.  Another  of  its  rules  was, 
that  members  of  one  family  or  clan  should  not  in 
termarry  with  each  other ;  but  that  the  young  man 
of  the  totem  of  the  Tortoise  must  choose  his  wife 
from  the  family  of  the  Bear  or  the  Hawk,  or  of 
any  totem  biit  the  Tortoise.  This  provision,  in  strict 


174:  PIONEEKS,    PKEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

conformity  with  physiological  truth,  was  well  calcu 
lated  to  perpetuate  the  physical  vigor  and  hardi 
hood,  the  integrity  and  individuality  of  the  race. 

Here'ditary  distinctions,  so  far  as  they  existed 
among  the  Indians,  descended  not  directly,  in  the 
male  line,  but  collaterally,  through  the  female. 
Thus,  it  was  not  the  son  of  the  chief  who  inherited 
his  chieftainship  after  him,  but  the  son  of  the  sis 
ter,  or  some  female  relative  of  the  chief.  Nor  was 
even  this  inheritance  sure  or  necessary.  No  mantle 
fell  by  any  law  of  succession  upon  unworthy 
shoulders.  The  candidate  for  the  authority  of  his  un 
cle  received  and  retained  his  power,  if  he  did  receive 
it,  because  he  also  was  preeminently  wise  in  council, 
powerful  in  debate,  sagacious  in  planning,  and  heroic 
in  strife.  Wanting  these  merits,  he  fell  unresistingly 
into  a  private  station,  and  the  poorest  and  obscurest 
youth  of  the  tribe,  if  his  abilities  entitled  him,  as 
sumed  the  power  of  sachem.  Insignia  the  office  had 
none. 

Having  thus  hastily  sketched  out  some  prominent 
traits  of  Indian  character,  I  now  come  to  the  more 
immediate  subject  of  this  lecture  :  the  great  conspi 
racy  organized  against  the  encroaching  whites,  by 
one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the  very  first  of  Indian 
statesmen  and  warriors ;  and  to  the  life  and  character 
of  its  leader — the  War  of  Pontiac,  the  Ottawa. 

In  1T60,   near  the  close  of  the  old  French  war, 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  175 

when  the  three  victorious  armies  of  England  had  met, 
converging  at  Montreal ;  when  Canada  had  been 
subjugated,  and  the  French  empire  was  about  to 
cease  over  the  new  continent,  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst, 
commander-in-chief  of  the  English  forces  in  this 
country,  dispatched  a  ISTew  Hampshire  ranger,  Ma 
jor  Robert  Rogers,  with  a  party  of  his  men,  to  take 
possession  of  the  French  forts  west  of  the  lakes.  This 
Major  Rogers  was  a  companion  in  arms  of  old  Israel 
Putnam ;  an  experienced  and  successful  Indian 
fighter,  of  desperate  courage,  yet  of  the  coolest  and 
most  sly  and  cautious  prudence.  A  tall,  strong  man, 
of  a  somewhat  evil  countenance,  he  was  little  trou 
bled  with  conscience,  was  strongly  suspected  of 
treachery  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  and,  indeed, 
became  a  colonel  in  the  British  service  ;  and  last — an 
odd  feature  in  the  character  of  a  backwoodsman — he 
possessed  no  inconsiderable  tincture  of  good  litera 
ture,  having  published  a  well- written  journal  of  his 
adventures  as  a  ranger,  and  even — it  is  believed — all 
or  part  of  "  The  Tragedy  of  Ponteach,"  a  drama  of 
the  fortunes  of  the  very  chieftain  of  whom  I  am  about 
to  speak. 

This  hardy  adventurer,  at  the  head  of  two  hundred 
men,  in  a  fleet  of  whaleboats,  proceeded  as  far  as  to 
the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Cleveland,  which  he 
reached  in  November,  1760.  Here  his  advance  was 
arrested  by  a  party  of  Indians,  who  met  him,  saying 


176  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

that  they  were  the  envoys  of  one  Pontiac,  the  mo 
narch  of  all  that  realm,  and  who  bade  him  halt  there 
until  a  conference  should  be  had  with  him. 

Thus  steps  forth,  for  the  first  time  within  the  light 
of  history,  from  the  obscurity  of  his  small  tribe — the 
Ottawas,  fugitives  among  the  great  Algonquin  na 
tion,  the  Ojibwas  of  Lake  Superior,  from  the  destroy 
ing  fury  of  the  terrible  Iroquois — the  great  chief,  Pon 
tiac,  sometimes  even  called  the  Emperor  of  the  Ottawa 
Indians,  so  extensive  was  his  sway,  and  so  vast  his 
power. 

Before  nightfall,  the  great  chief  made  his  appear 
ance,  and  proudly  demanded  wherefore  the  English 
were  in  his  country  ?  Rogers  made  answer,  that  the 
English,  having  conquered  the  French,  were  now 
taking  possession  of  the  forts  of  the  vanquished,  and 
that  this  was  his  errand  to  Detroit.  Taking  until  the 
next  day  to  answer,  the  Indian  chieftain  concluded 
with  prompt  decisive  wisdom  that  the  English  power 
was,  in  truth,  becoming  uppermost,  and  that  he  would 
worship  the  rising  sun.  He  returned  and  made  a 
corresponding  reply  ;  and  on  the  journey,  which  the 
English  party  completed  successfully,  averted  at  least 
one  intended  attack  by  the  Detroit  Indians. 

"While  with.  Eogers,  Pontiac  was  very  inquisitive 
to  learn  how  the  English  manufactured  such  guns  of 
the  black  rock  called  iron  ;  how  cloth  was  woven,  and 
powder  made  ;  how  they  drilled  and  disciplined  their 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  177 

troops  ;  and  asked  a  thousand  other  questions  about 
European  matters.  This  man  was  the  head  chief  of 
all  the  Ottawas,  and  high  in  the  esteem  of  all  the 
neighboring  tribes  on  the  peninsula  which  projects 
from  the  main  base  of  the  continent,  and  is  surrounded 
by  lakes  Michigan,  Huron,  St.  Clair  and  Erie.  The 
Ojibwas,  "Wyandots,  Pottawatomies,  and  other  neigh 
boring  tribes  entertained  for  him  a  sort  of  reverence, 
similar  in  kind,  and  even  greater  in  degree,  than  that 
afterward  commanded  by  Tecumseh,  himself — as  were 
King  Philip  and  Pontiac — of  Algonquin  blood. 

A  year  or  two  passed  away,  and  British  troops  and 
British  influences  had  replaced  those  of  France 
through  all  the  vast  belt  of  inland  possessions  which 
had  for  nearly  a  century  owned  the  power  of  the 
French  king.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  describe 
the  difference,  so  often  enlarged  upon,  between  the 
light-hearted,  social  and  plastic  French,  and  the 
haughty,  gruff,  and  arrogant  English,  in  their  inter 
course  with  the  punctilious  and  irritable  sons  of  the 
forest.  Instead  of  the  generous  and  easy  hospitality, 
the  careful,  courteous,  and  indulgent  observance,  with 
which  the  French  officers  and  traders  had  so  judi 
ciously  and  successfully  treated  the  Indians,  they 
were  suddenly  everywhere  used  with  rude  overbear 
ing  insolence,  neglected,  driven  off  with  curses,  and 
even  with  blows — the  last  indignity  to  which  an  In 
dian  could  be  subjected. 

8* 


178  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

And  while  this  unhappy,  invariable  course  on  the 
part  of  the  English,  together  with  the  brutal  swindling 
of  their  traders,  the  rapid  advance  of  their  settle 
ments,  the  ruin  of  their  hunting-grounds,  and  the 
swift  and  steady  circumscription  of  their  territories 
kindled  all  along  the  vast  extent  of  the  Indian  fron 
tier  the  smoldering  exasperation  and  bitter  enmity 
that  ever  and  anon  flamed  out  into  murders  and  de 
vastating  inroads  by  individuals  and  war-parties  of  the 
young  men  of  one  and  another  tribe ;  the  chiefs  them 
selves,  long  accustomed  to  the  special  distinctions  and 
valuable  presents  which  formed  so  agreeable  a  part  of 
the  French  system  of  colonial  administration,  were 
still  more  bitterly  mortified  and  enraged  at  the  neg 
lects  and  insults  which  they  received  from  the  coarse 
and  proud  men  with  whom  the  British  forces  were 
almost  always  officered. 

Pontiac  felt  all  this,  and  felt  it  the  more  pro 
foundly,  by  as  much  as  the  depth  of  his  intellect  and 
the  strength  of  his  passions  and  his  pride  surpassed 
those  of  his  savage  contemporaries.  But  his  wrath, 
and  sorrow,  and  mortification,  were  yet  a  thousand 
fold  more  inflamed  by  disappointments  of  a  charac 
ter  which  very  few  of  the  tribesmen  under  his  com 
mand  could  even  comprehend,  much  less  sympathize 
with. 

The  dream  and  desire  of  his  life  was,  the  progress 
and  improvement  of  his  people,  and  their  advance  in 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  179 

power  and  in  happiness.  And  so  just  and  far-reach 
ing  were  the  views  of  this  wild  Ottawa  sachem,  that 

O  ' 

he  comprehended  the  necessity  of  the  manufactures 
of  civilized  races,  and  would  fain  have  rendered  the 
tribes  independent  of  both  English  and  French,  in 
this  respect,  by  enabling  them  to  supply  all  their  own 
wants.  He  neither  loved  nor  feared  the  English  or 
the  French  ;  and  his  alliance  with  each,  and  his  pre 
ference  of  either,  was  decided  singly  by  the  advan 
tage  which  he  hoped  thus  to  secure  to  his  race.  So 
long  as  the  French  held  much  territory  and  many 
fortresses  in  America,  he  remained  in  alliance  with 
them.  "When  they  were  conquered,  and  the  places 
of  their  troops  filled  by  the  red-coated  soldiery  of 
England,  he  as  promptly  made  friends  with  the 
English. 

But  the  hopes  of  elevating  and  bettering  his  race, 
which,  though  delusive,  had  been  long  maintained 
by  the  fair  professions  and  careful  external  obser 
vances  of  the  Frenchmen,  were  quickly  quenched 
by  the  more  honest  rudeness,  neglects  and  insults, 
which  the  British  officers  inflicted  upon  the  Indians ; 
and  Pontiac  soon  perceived  that  the  Ottawa  nation, 
and  all  the  Indian  tribes,  would  perish,  unless  their 
white  invaders  should  be  destroyed,  or  their  progress 
arrested.  This  design  he  at  once  set  about  accom 
plishing;  and  forthwith  he  organized  a  conspiracy, 
far  the  most  gigantic  ever  originated  by  an  Indian  on 


180  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

this  continent,  and  which,  for  extent,  secrecy,  and 
ability  of  conception  and  execution,  will  vie  with 
any  plot  in  history. 

His  own  personal  qualifications,  and  the  circum 
stances  of  the  time,  made  the  opportunity  a  perfect 
one.  In  the  prime  of  a  leader's  life — being  about 
fifty  years  old — despotic  ruler  of  the  confederated 
tribes  of  the  Ottawas,  Pottawatomies,  and  their  third 
ally,  the  great  tribe  of  the  Ojibwas — long  possessed 
of  a  paramount  influence  over  all  the  Indians  of  Illi 
nois,  and  known  and  honored  throughout  all  the  wide 
territories  of  the  Algonquin  race — no  other  chieftain 
conld  have  aroused  such  hosts  as  he,  or  could  have 
sustained  or  controlled  their  wrath  so  long  ;  nor  were 
the  Indians  at  any  other  time  ever  so  extensively  and 
fiercely  hostile  to  their  white  aggressors.  From  the 
distant  trading-stations  in  the  cold  regions  beyond 
Lake  Superior,  to  the  far  southern  tribes  back  of  the 
settlements  in  Carolina  and  Georgia,  the  savages  were 
all  yet  hot  with  their  anger  of  the  recent  strife  in 
which  they  had  fought  for  the  French  ;  and  this 
wrath  was  still  more  vehemently  enkindled  by  the 
insulting  treatment  of  which  I  have  spoken,  by  the 
brutal  conduct  and  enormous  impositions  of  the  Eng 
lish  fur-traders,  and  still  more  by  the  ominous  rapid 
ity  with  which  the  white  frontier  marched  westward, 
destroying  one  hunting-ground  after  another,  covering 
the  lands,  and  annihilating  or  expelling  the  tribes. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  181 

In  the  latter  portion  of  the  year  1762,  therefore, 
there  went  out  from  the  Ottawa  village,  which  stood 
just  below  Lake  St.  Clair  and  above  Fort  Detroit, 
on  the  Canada  side  of  the  river,  many  messengers. 
They  sped  into  the  distant  forests  of  the  northern 
Algonquins  beyond  the  great  lakes ;  to  the  banded 
nations  of  the  Iroquois ;  to  the  pacific  Delawares  in 
Pennsylvania;  to  the  savage  Tuscaroras,  and  the 
warlike  Mobilians,  west  of  Carolina  and  along  the 
Gulf  coast ;  to  the  various  tribes  all  along  the  Mis 
sissippi  ;  and  to  the  nations  of  the  Illinois  country. 
Everywhere  they  carried  the  great  red  war-belt  and 
the  words  of  the  great  Pontiac  ;  and  everywhere,  in  re 
sponse  to  the  wild  call  of  the  savage  envoys,  the 
young  men  rose  up  and  prepared  for  war.  To  all 
was  appointed  a  certain  time  in  the  next  May,  when 
every  tribe  was  to  exterminate  the  garrison  nearest 
it,  and  the  whole  wild  host  were  then  to  break  in 
upon  the  settlements.  And  all  the  savage  confede 
rates,  and  Pontiac  himself — who  was  in  this  deluded 
with  all  the  rest — expected  decisive  succor  from  the 
armies  of  the  French  king,  which  they  believed  to  be 
on  the  march  to  recover  their  great  Canadian  posses 
sions.  This  expectation  was  kept  up  by  the  reports 
of  the  Canadian  French,  and  even  by  forged  letters, 
giving  advice  of  the  march  of  French  troops  up  the 
St.  Lawrence. 

The  spring  arrives ;  and  in   all  the  long  range  of 


182  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

English  forts,  from  Michilimackinac  and  Sault  Ste.  Ma 
rie,  to  the  northwestward,  to  Fort  Niagara,  and  all 
along  the  line  of  lake  forts,  Detroit,  Sandusky  and 
Presqu'  Isle,  and  south  by  Venango  and  Fort  Pitt  to 
the  frontier  posts  in  the  west  of  Virginia,  all  is  safe 
and  secure.  Here  and  there  have  been  heard  or  seen 
indistinct  signs  of  irritation  or  disturbance  among  the 
savages  ;  and  in  one  instance — at  Fort  Miami — the 
commander  had  even  heard  of  the  war-belt,  held  a 
council  with  the  Indians  about  it,  reproved  them,  and 
sent  the  news,  and  their  cunning  disclaimers,  to  Ma 
jor  Gladwyn,  at  Detroit,  and  he  to  Sir  Jeffrey  Am- 
herst,  at  New  York.  But  none  dreams  of  anything 
worse  than  a  temporary  state  of  uneasiness  among 
the  tribes ;  and  the  English  forces  in  his  majesty's 
colonies  in  North  America  remain  dispersed  and  fee 
ble,  and  all  the  royal  posts  careless  and  almost  unre 
strainedly  open  to  the  Indians. 

Pontiac  himself  determined  to  commence  the  war 
by  attacking  Fort  Detroit,  the  strongest  of  all  the 
English  posts  in  the  Indian  country,  except  Fort  Pitt. 
After  the  Indian  fashion,  he  at  first  tried  stratagem. 
Having  unsuspectedly  made  a  satisfactory  reconnois- 
sance  of  the  interior  of  the  post,  he  entered  it  some 
days  afterward,  on  pretence  of  a  council,  with  three 
hundred  chosen  warriors,  all  armed  for  war,  and  with 
their  guns  cut  short  and  hidden  under  their  blankets. 
But  Major  Gladwyn,  the  English  commander,  a  cool 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  183 

and  brave  man,  had  been  put  on  his  guard  only  the 
night  before  by  his  Indian  favorite,  a  beautiful 
Ojibwa  girl  named  Catharine.  Making  all  the  ne 
cessary  preparations,  therefore,  he  deliberately  ad 
mitted  this  savage  host.  They  saw  with  dismay  the 
military  array  of  the  garrison,  and  only  after 
uneasy  delay  would  they  seat  themselves  and  go 
through  the  deceitful  ceremonies  under  cover  of  which 
they  had  intended  to  murder  the  commandant  and  his 
force,  and  to  throw  open  the  gates  to  the  Indian  army 
without.  Pontiac  made  a  speech,  as  usual  on  such 
occasions,  professing  friendship  and  peaceful  inten 
tions  as  if  he  had  as  heretofore  come  only  for  rum 
or  for  presents.  He  even  raised  his  hand  with 
the  peace-belt  of  wampum,  the  giving  of  which 
was  to  have  signalled  the  onset  of  his  braves, 
but  paused  in  speechless  amazement  when,  at  that 
very  moment,  in  obedience  to  Gladwyn's  command, 
the  rattle  and  clash  of  weapons  and  the  roll  of  the 
drum  sounded  from  without  the  room.  After  a  short 
and  somewhat  stern  reply  from  Gladwyn,  the  Indi 
ans  departed  in  disappointment  and  anger,  but  yet 
quite  sure  that  the  English  were  either  utterly  ignorant 
of  their  scheme,  or  arrant  cowards  if  not,  for  letting 
them  escape  alive.  And  accordingly,  Pontiac  visited 
Gladwyn  with  a  few  companions  next  day,  to  endea 
vor  to  confirm  him  in  a  belief  in  their  peaceful  inten 
tions,  and  one  day  afterward,  tried  to  obtain  admis- 


184:  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS   AND    PEOPLE 

sion  into  the  fort  with  a  large  number  of  his  warriors. 
Being  now  briefly  and  sternly  refused,  the  savages, 
bursting  at  once  into  all  the  fiendish  rage  of  Indian  war 
fare,  murdered  two  English  families  who  lived  at  a 
short  distance,  and  the  next  day  closely  invested  the 
fort ;  a  mixed  and  numerous  swarm  of  four  nations,  Otta- 
was,  Pottawatomies,  Wy  andots  and  Ojibwas,  all  under 
the  command  of  the  great  Ottawa  war-chief  Pontiac. 

And  now  all  along  the  far-stretching  frontier,  the 
dark  forests  swarm  with  war-parties.  All  the 
English  posts  west  of  the  mountains  were  attacked. 
Traders,  travellers  and  emigrants,  the  forlorn  hope  of 
the  advancing  invasion  of  the  white  settlements, 
were  killed.  Every  secluded  farm  or  lonely  hamlet, 
of  all  those  that  fringed  the  interval  between 
hunting-grounds  and  farms,  was  burned.  Hundreds 
and  hundreds  of  families  were  exterminated,  or 
driven  back  within  the  area  of  the  denser  settle 
ments  scared  and  penniless,  and  too  often  with  the 
loss  of  some  of  the  beloved  circle. 

Such  was  the  perfection  of  this  gigantic  project, 
and  the  secrecy  of  its  thousands  of  confidants  for 
months  together,  that  the  savage  outbreak  was 
nowhere  expected  except  for  those  few  hours  of 
warning  at  Detroit — and  even  there  it  was  many 
days  before  Gladwyn  would  believe  it  to  be  more 
than  a  temporary  outbreak  of  anger,  or  that  all  the 
posts  were  assaulted  so  nearly  together  that  none 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  185 

could  assist  any  other.  Oiie  after  another,  in  rapid 
succession,  eight  of  them  fell.  On  the  16th  of  May, 
Fort  Sandusky  was  surprised  by  a  body  of  Indians, 
who  gained  admittance  as  friends,  and  murdered  all 
but  the  commander  and  two  or  three  of  the  garrison. 
On  the  25th,  St.  Joseph's,  at  the  south  end  of  Lake 
Michigan,  was  seized  in  a  similar  manner,  eleven 
men  of  the  little  garrison  having  been  killed,  the 
other  four  made  prisoners,  and  the  fort  plundered ;  all 
within  less  than  two  minutes  after  the  signal  yell 
was  given.  Two  days  afterward,  Fort  Miami,  on  the 
Maunaee,  was  surrendered  to  the  savages,  Ensign 
Holmes,  the  commander,  having  been  enticed  out 
and  shot  dead,  and  the  sergeant  taken  prisoner.  On 
the  1st  of  June,  a  similar  stratagem  made  the  Indians 
masters  of  Fort  Ouatanon  on  the  "Wabash,  the  garri 
son,  however,  being  all  preserved  alive,  and  sent 
prisoners  to  the  Illinois  country.  On  the  4th,  the 
Ojibwas,  by  means  of  a  game  of  ball  called  lagga- 
tiway,  surprised  Fort  Michilimackinac,  massacred 
nearly  all  of  the  garrison,  made  prisoners  of  the  rest, 
and  seized  the  large  quantities  of  liquor,  stores  and 
merchandise,  public  and  private,  accumulated  in 
that  important  depot  of  the  Indian  trade.  On  the 
15th,  after  a  siege  of  twenty-four  hours,  eighteen  of 
them  of  incessant  furious  attacks,  with  the  aid  of 
intrenchments  and  mines,  and  of  desperate  hardihood 
in  defence,  Fort  Presqu'  Isle  was  surrendered,  and 


186  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

the  garrison,  despite  a  capitulation  providing  that 
they  might  retire  to  the  nearest  post,  were  sent 
prisoners  to  the  camp  of  Pontiac  at  Detroit.  On  the 
18th,  Fort  Le  Breuf,  a  few  miles  south  of  Presqu' 
Isle,  on  a  branch  of  the  Alleghany,  was  attacked 
toward  nightfall  by  a  large  body  of  Indians,  and  set 
on  fire  by  fire-arrows ;  but  the  commander  and  his 
little  squad  of  thirteen  men,  desperate  with  their 
horrible  peril,  cut  a  way  out  through  the  rear  of  the 
blockhouse  while  the  Indians  were  waiting  to  see 
them  driven  out  through  the  door  by  the  flames,  and 
fled  away  to  Fort  Pitt ;  six  of  them,  utterly  exhausted, 
being  left  behind  in  the  woods.  And  lastly,  Fort 
Venango,  still  further  south,  at  the  junction  of  the 
same  stream  with  the  Alleghany,  was  about  the  same 
time  surprised  by  a  large  force  of  Senecas,  who, 
admitted  as  friends,  murdered  all  the  garrison  except 
the  commander,  tortured  him  for  several  nights  over 
a  slow  fire  until  he  died,  burnt  down  the  w^orks, 
and  departed.  Fort  Pitt,  Fort  Ligonier,  some 
distance  southwest  of  it,  and  Fort  Augusta,  on  the 
Susquehanna,  were  also  attacked,  but  the  Indians 
were  repulsed. 

And  now  the  English  held  not  one  fortified  post 
west  of  Fort  Pitt,  save  Detroit  alone,  where  the 
undismayed  Gladwyn  still  maintained  himself, 
though  closely  beleaguered  by  the  great  confederate 
host  under  Pontiac.  The  vigor  and  constancy  of 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  187 

this  siege  are  without  precedent  or  parallel  in  Indian 
history.  From  the  beginning  of  May  until  the  end 
of  October  did  the  power  and  influence  of  their 
indomitable  leader  hold  the  savage  host  in  watchful 
array  against  the  fort ;  wearying  the  scanty  garrison 
with  a  fire  of  musketry  that  left  them  no  rest  day  or 
night;  contriving  plan  after  plan  to  destroy  the  two 
small  vessels  which  remained  under  the  protection 
of  the  works,  and  served  to  guard  the  water-front ;  to 
rake  the  north  and  south  sides  of  the  walls,  and 
to  make  an  occasional  attack  upon  the  enemy's 
camp. 

No  other  Indian  chieftain — at  least  none  of  pure 
blood,  for  an  exception  must  be  made  in  favor  of 
General  Alexander  McGillivray,  the  chief  of  the 
Creeks — ever  showed  such  breadth  and  quickness  of 
mind  in  comprehending  and  practising  the  arts  of 
civilized  life,  a  characteristic  not  less  indicative  of  the 
lofty  rank  of  his  intellect,  than  was  thak  "vast  mag 
netic  power  which  enabled  him  so  long  to  concen 
trate  and  wield  the  forces  of  those  flitting  and 
unstable  warriors  of  the  woods.  Unable  to  read  or 
write,  he  employed  one  secretary  to  write  letters  and 
another  to  interpret  those  received,  and  with  diplo 
matic  shrewdness,  kept  each  ignorant  of  the  business 
of  the  other.  To  satisfy  until  he  could  pay  them, 
the  French  Canadians  from  whose  live  stock  he  was 
forced  to  support  his  army,  he  issued  securities,  of 


188  PKXNEEKS,    PREACHEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

the  nature  of  notes  of  hand,  drawn  on  birch  bark 
and  signed  with  his  totem,  the  otter,  which  were  all 
punctually  redeemed.  He  organized  a  regular  com 
missariat  department,  gathering  into  one  stock  the 
provisions  thus  collected,  and  which  he  levied  after  a 
fixed  rate  from  the  Canadians  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  distributing  them  again  to  his  forces;  rigidly 
protecting  the  farms  from  depredation,  and  even 
making  his  followers  avoid  trampling  on  growing 
crops. 

Not  less  remarkable  were  the  bravery  and  versa 
tile  skill  employed  in  the  operations  for  attack.  All 
the  slender  means  of  Indian  warfare  were  exhausted 
in  assaulting  the  palisades  of  the  fort.  Repeated 
attempts  were  made  to  burn  the  two  vessels,  by 
fire-rafts  sent  down  the  river.  A  detachment  of 
nearly  a  hundred  men,  sent  to  relieve  the  fort,  was 
surprised  by  a  party  of  Wyandots  wrhen  within  thirty 
miles  of  their  destination,  sixty  of  them  taken  or 
slain,  and  the  rest  driven  back  to  the  eastward  in  but 
two  of  their  eighteen  boats  ;  and  the  ample  stock  of 
provisions  and  ammunition  intended  for  the  besieged, 
all  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Indians.  The  schooner 
Gladwyn,  one  of  the  two  vessels  attached  to  the  fort, 
was  fiercely  attacked  by  the  Indians  while  in  the  river 
below,  on  her  way  up  with  a  small  reinforcement, 
and  was  driven  back  to  the  lake,  though  a  second 
attempt  carried  her  up  to  the  fortress  in  safety,  with 


OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  189 

her  men  and  supplies.  Captain  Dalzell,  a  com 
panion  in  arms  of  General  Putnam,  arrived  at  the 
fort  toward  the  end  of  July,  with  a  second  rein 
forcement  of  nearly  three  hundred  men,  and  obtained 
with  difficulty  from  the  cautious  Gladwyn,  permis 
sion  to  lead  a  party  to  endeavor  to  surprise  Pontiac's 
camp.  But  the  wary  chief,  informed  by  some 
Canadians  of  the  intended  attack,  ambuscaded  them 
on  their  way,  and  they  were  only  able  to  return  to 
the  fort  by  the  exercise  of  great  skill  and  coolness  in 
manoeuvring,  and  with  the  loss  of  fifty-nine  killed 
and  wounded.  One  of  the  English  schooners  was 
attacked  again,  while  returning  from  ^Niagara,  and 
in  spite  of  cannon  and  small-arms,  and  a  most  heroic 
defence  by  her  little  crew  of  twelve  men,  would  have 
been  taken,  had  not  the  Indians  been  scared  at  the 
sudden  order  of  the  mate  to  blow  up  the  schooner, 
and  all  jumped  overboard  to  escape. 

But  the  obstinate  resolution  of  Major  Gladwyn; 
the  reinforcements  from  the  east;  the  weariness  of 
this  long  siege,  now  severely  felt  by  the  Indian  host ; 
the  failure  of  their  ammunition ;  the  receipt  of  a  letter 
which  the  French  commander  at  Fort  Chartres  had 
reluctantly  dispatched  at  the  demand  of  Sir  Jeffrey 
Amherst,  and  which  informed  Pontiac  that  the 
French  were  at  peace  with  the  English,  and  that  he 
could  expect  no  aid  from  them ;  and  the  approach  of 
winter,  when  the  Indians  must  of  necessity  scatter 


190  PIONEERS,    PREACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

themselves  abroad  in  the  forests  to  keep  themselves 
alive  by  hunting — all  these  causes  conspired  to  dis 
appoint  this  central  portion  of  the  great  design  of 
Pontiac.  The  "Wyandots  and  Pottawatomies  had 
made  a  peace  during  July,  which,  however,  they 
afterward  broke ;  but  in  October  they  sought, 
together  with  the  Ojibwas,  to  make  a  regular  treaty. 
Gladwyn  consented  to  a  truce,  and  instantly  taking 
advantage  of  the  opportunity,  soon  had  his  garrison 
provisioned  for  the  whole  winter.  And  Pontiac, 
cruelly  enraged  and  disappointed,  with  no  forces  left 
but  his  own  Ottawas,  and  now  at  last  giving  up  his 
hopes  of  French  aid,  left  Detroit,  and  departing  to 
what  is  now  the  northwest  part  of  Ohio,  set  about 
stirring  up  the  Indians  of  that  region ;  intending  to 
resume  the  siege  of  Detroit  in  the  spring. 

The  brief  sequel  of  his  war  and  end  of  his  life  are 
soon  told.  In  the  spring  of  1764,  the  English  govern 
ment  resolved  upon  a  judicious  scheme  for  the 
organization  of  trade  and  intercourse  with  the 
Indians. 

As  a  necessary  preliminary,  however,  they  sent  two 
armies,  one  under  Col.  Bradstreet,  along  the  lakes,  and 
another  under  Col.  Bouquet,  through  Pennsylvania 
into  the  heart  of  the  Indian  country,  to  bring  the 
tribes  to  submission.  Of  this  latter  commander  and 
this  expedition,  it  is  fit  that  some  account  should  here 
be  given. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  191 

Col.  Henry  Bouquet  was  a  native  of  the  Swiss  can 
ton  of  Berne,  was  a  soldier  from  his  boyhood,  and 
had  served  under  Sardinia  and  Holland,  before  he 
became  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Royal  Americans, 
a  corps  raised  in  America,  chiefly  of  Germans,  and 
officered  by  foreigners.  It  is  now  the  60th  Bifles. 
In  this  command,  Bouquet  had  already  gained  a 
high  reputation  in  Pennsylvania,  as  a  noble  and  ac 
complished  man  and  soldier.  During  the  previous 
year,  while  in  charge  of  a  small  force  and  a  convoy 
for  the  relief  of  forts  Bedford,  Ligonier  and  Pitt,  he 
had  commanded  at  the  desperate  battle  of  Bushy 
Bun,  one  of  the  hardest  fought  fields  ever  contested 
between  whites  and  Indians.  This  was  on  August 
5th,  1T63,  when  Bouquet's  little  army,  of  only  about 
five  hundred  men,  many  of  them  invalids  from  the 
unhealthy  service  in  the  West  Indies,  was  suddenly 
attacked  while  on  the  march,  about  twenty-five 
miles  from  Fort  Pitt,  by  a  force  of  Indians  about 
as  numerous  as  the  English,  but  having  the  great 
advantages  of  complete  knowledge  of  the  forest  and 
its  warfare.  Bouquet,  with  ready  skill,  formed  his 
men  into  a  circle  round  his  horses  and  baggage,  and 
from  one  o'clock  until  eight  sustained  a  furious  and  in 
cessant  attack.  The  yelling  savages,  with  a  boldness 
very  rare  in  their  system  of  fighting,  rushed  against 
the  slender  line  of  English,  with  a  close  and  heavy  fire ; 
and  then,  when  the  Highlanders,  after  one  sharp  vol- 


192  PIONEEKS,   PEEACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

ley,  charged  with  the  bayonet,  they  leaped  back  out 
of  reach,  aud  a  moment  afterward  dashed  at  another 
portion  of  the  ring.  At  nightfall  they  drew  off,  having 
lost  very  few,  while  60  of  the  soldiers,  besides  offi 
cers,  were  killed  or  disabled.  Bouquet  made  his  men 
encamp  in  their  order  of  battle,  upon  their  arms,  mak 
ing  every  preparation  against  a  night  attack ;  and  thus, 
in  momentary  expectation  of  the  foe,  weary  and  thirsty 
— for  the  hill  on  which  they  were  afforded  no  water, 
and  none  dared  seek  it — and  without  fire,  lest  the  light 
should  guide  the  forest  marksmen,  the  beleagured  lit 
tle  army  awaited  daylight,  the  wounded  being  depo 
sited  within  a  sort  of  little  breastwork  of  flour-bags.  At 
early  dawn  next  morning  the  Indians  resumed  the 
battle  in  the  same  manner,  attacking  furiously,  firing, 
and  vanishing  into  the  forest  whenever  the  English 
charged  forward  from  their  narrow  ring.  Thus  they 
fought  until  about  ten  o'clock,  suffering  actual  agonies 
of  thirst,  their  little  force  gradually  thinning  under 
the  fire  of  the  Indian  rifles  ;  and  now  the  weary  ranks 
began  to  lose  strength  and  courage.  Perseverance 
in  their  cunning  tactics  must  infallibly  have  given 
the  savages  the  victory ;  but  at  the  moment  when 
this  became  evident,  the  cool  and  shrewd  Bouquet 
snatched  it  from  them  by  a  well-planned  stratagem. 
He  caused  two  companies  to  withdraw  from  the  line 
of  defence,  as  if  retreating,  toward  the  centre  of  the 
circle.  The  Indians,  perceiving  this,  charged  with 


OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI.  193 

redoubled  fury  upon  the  weakened  line,  and  were  on 
the  point  of  breaking  through,  when  the  two  compa 
nies,  who  had  taken  advantage  of  some  low  and 
wooded  ground  for  their  manoeuvre,  and  had  passed 
out  of  the  circle  and  made  a  short  circuit  in  the  forest, 
burst  upon  the  flank  of  the  Indians,  and  delivered  a 
heavy  and  deadly  volley.  The  savages,  though  taken 
entirely  by  surprise,  faced  about  and  intrepidly  re 
turned  the  fire  ;  but  fled,  when  these  new  opponents 
charged  violently  with  fixed  bayonets.  Two  other 
companies,  placed  in  ambush  for  the  purpose,  as  the 
routed  savages  fled  across  their  front,  rose  and  gave 
them  another  destructive  volley,  and  then  all  the  four 
charging  again  together,  the  savage  foe  fled,  routed 
and  entirely  broken  and  discouraged,  leaving  about 
sixty  of  their  number  dead  on  the  ground — an  enor 
mous  loss  for  them.  The  command,  setting  out  again 
next  day,  reached  Fort  Pitt  in  safety  ;  and  Col.  Bou 
quet  received  for  his  courage  and  conduct  in  this  im 
portant  battle,  the  thanks  of  the  Pennsylvania  Assem 
bly,  and  of  the  king. 

Col.  Bouquet  was  thus  naturally  selected  to  head 
the  southern  of  the  two  expeditions  of  1764  against 
the  Indians,  as  he  had  proved  his  judgment  and  skill 
upon  the  very  ground  now  to  be  traversed  again  ;  and 
accordingly,  a  force  of  about  eighteen  hundred  men, 
regulars,  Pennsylvania  provincials,  and  Virginia  rifle 
men,  having  been  mustered  at  Carlisle  on  the  5th  of 

9 


194:  PIONEEKS,    PKEACHEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

August,  Bouquet  assumed  the  command,  after  the 
troops  had  been  addressed  by  Governor  Penn,  and  in 
a  few  days  the  army  marched  for  Fort  London. 
Their  commander,  well  aware  of  the  danger  of  the 
enterprise,  used  every  precaution  that  experience  and 
foresight  could  suggest.  He  established  the  strictest 
discipline,  shooting  a  couple  of  deserters  at  Fort  Lou- 
don  before  he  could  enforce  it  to  his  mind ;  allowed 
not  one  woman  to  accompany  the  army  except  one 
to  each  corps,  and  two  nurses  ;  and  arranged  a  care 
ful  and  well -protected  order  of  marching,  in  open  or 
der,  in  a  parallelogram,  the  baggage  and  cattle  in 
the  centre,  and  with  many  outlying  parties  and  scouts 
in  the  woods  in  advance.  When  he  reached  Fort 
London,  three  hundred  of  the  Pennsylvanians  had 
deserted,  and  he  remained  here  some  weeks  to  re 
cruit.  Bradstreet,  commanding  the  northern  expedi 
tion,  had  now  reached  Presqu'  Isle  on  Lake  Erie, 
where ,  a  pretended  Indian  embassy  met  him  and 
fooled  him  into  negotiations,  intending  on  their  part 
merely  to  prevent  his  advance,  while  all  the  time 
their  warriors  were  murdering  and  burning  on  the 
frontier.  But  Bouquet  disregarded  the  peace  thus 
made,  and  Gage  annulled  it. 

Setting  forward  again  from  Fort  London,  Bouquet 
reached  Fort  Pitt  in  September,  and  there  delayed 
again  until  October  3d,  when,  leaving  the  fort,  he 
plunged  into  the  untraversed  forest,  marching  to- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  195 

ward  the  Indian  towns  on  the  pleasant  banks  of  the 
Muskingum.  In  the  same  careful  order,  ready  at 
any  moment  to  form  in  a  defensive  ring  around  the 
baggage  if  attacked,  and  filling  the  woods  far  in  ad 
vance  and  on  the  flanks  with  the  Virginia  scouts,  he 
proceeded,  unable  to  advance  more  than  from  five  to 
twelve  miles  a  day;  until  after  ten  days'  difficult  pro 
gress,  he  fixed  himself  in  the  heart  of  the  Indian 
country,  and  within  striking  distance  of  all  their  vil 
lages  except  the  Shawanee  towns  on  the  Scioto. 

Here  the  fierce  tribes,  dismayed  at  the  presence  of 
what  was  to  them  a  mighty  host,  and  conscious  that 
they  could  oifer  no  adequate  resistance  to  Bouquet 
and  Bradstreet,  met  the  former;  and  after  some  nego 
tiations,  in  the  course  of  which  their  mortification  and 
sullen  pride,  mingled  with  an  evident  fear  almost  ab 
ject,  rendered  their  speeches,  usually  so  figurative 
and  vivid,  even  dull,  spiritless,  and  common-place, 
the  Indians  complied  with  Bouquet's  demands,  deli 
vered  up  more  than  two  hundred  prisoners,  and  faith 
fully  promised  to  send  in  the  rest  in  the  spring.  Af 
ter  deposing  a  contumacious  Delaware  chief,  and 
causing  a  successor  to  be  appointed,  exacting  hostages 
for  good  behavior,  and  prescribing  the  immediate 
sending  of  a  deputation  to  Sir  William  Johnson  to 
agree  upon  terms  of  peace,  Bouquet,  who  had  hitherto 
treated  the  terrified  savages  with  chilling  and  over 
awing  sternness,  relaxed  his  demeanor,  and  held  an- 


196  PIONEERS,    PKEACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

other  council,  in  which,  he  treated  them  in  a  friendly 
manner. 

Many  accounts  have  been  given  of  the  extraordi 
nary  scenes  at  the  delivery  of  the  Indian  prisoners. 
Numbers  of  the  frontiersmen  who  had  accompanied 
the  expedition,  had  done  so  in  the  hope  of  regaining 
wives,  children,  or  relatives,  in  captivity  in  the  wild 
erness.  The  whole  annals  of  human  history  could 
scarcely  furnish  a  record  of  another  scene  so  moving 
and  so  wonderful  as  this  for  the  exhibition  of  varied 
and  violent  human  passions.  Day  by  day  the  lost  white 
people  came  back  in  troops,  many  of  them,  power 
fully  held  by  the  strange  love  of  the  wilderness,  com 
ing  with  reluctance,  and  even  bound  as  prisoners  to 
prevent  them  from  fleeing  back  into  the  forest.  Wo 
men,  even,  would  fain  have  remained  in  the  cabins 
of  the  dusky  husbands  of  their  captivity,  to  train  their 
young  half-breeds  in  forest  nurture.  In  truth,  the 
strangest  feature  of  the  scene  was  the  comparative  in 
difference  of  the  rescued  captives,  contrasting  so 
strongly  with  the  overwhelming  agitation  of  the  friends 
who  sought  them.  Husbands  sought  wives,  and  pa 
rents  children,  trembling  and  weeping,  doubtful  of 
them  when  found,  changed  as  they  were  by  the 
growth  of  years  and  the  exposures  of  forest  life ;  and 
the  strange  magnetism  of  human  passion,  seizing 
upon  all  around,  even  infected  the  rudest  of  the  sol 
diers,  who  sympathized  in  the  sorrows  or  the  joys  of 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  197 

the  occasion  ;  many  of  them  not  even  able  to  refrain 
from  tears. 

One  of  the  most  affecting  occurrences  of  the  occa 
sion  was  the  recognition  by  an  aged  mother  of  her 
daughter,  who,  carried  away  nine  years  before,  was 
among  the  captives.  The  eyes  of  the  parent,  sharp 
ened  by  natural  affection,  discerned  the  features  of 
her  lost  child  in  those  of  a  swarthy  and  sunburnt 
young  female ;  but  her  long  captivity  had  deprived 
the  girl  of  almost  every  word  of  the  English  which 
she  had  acquired  at  the  early  age  when  she  was 
stolen,  and  she  quite  failed  to  recognize  her  old  mo 
ther,  who  lamented  with  rude,  affecting  sorrow,  that 
the  daughter  whom  she  had  so  often  sung  to  sleep, 
had  so  utterly  forgotten  her.  Bouquet,  a  man  of 
kind  feelings  as  well  as  ready  intellect,  seized  the 
hint  which  the  sorrowing  mother  did  not  perceive, 
and  told  her  to  try  the  experiment  of  singing  the 
song  with  which  she  had  put  her  child  to  sleep.  She 
did  so ;  and  the  long-forgotten,  simple  strain  unsealed 
the  daughter's  memory  and  awoke  her  affections  at 
once  ;  and  weeping  and  rejoicing,  she  fell  upon  her 
mother's  neck. 

But  the  wondrous  magic  of  the  wilderness,  the  in 
nate  savagery  that  is  somewhere  hidden  in  almost  ev 
ery  heart,  were  singularly  proved  by  the  actions  of 
some  of  the  captives  this  day  redeemed.  Of  all  the 
white  women  who  had  taken  Indian  husbands,  not  one, 


198  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND    PEOPLE 

even  though  her  children  came  with  her,  returned 
willingly  to  civilized  life  ;  and  several  of  them  after 
ward  actually  escaped  back  to  their  red  lords,  their 
wigwams,  and  the  forest. 

The  business  of  the  expedition  thus  prosperously 
accomplished,  Bouquet  and  his  little  army  returned 
upon  their  footsteps,  and  safely  regained  the  settle 
ments.  The  successful  leader  received  a  vote  of 
thanks,  most  flatteringly  worded,  from  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Assembly,  and  another  from  that  of  Virginia  ; 
and  also  a  more  substantial  token  of  the  appreciation 
of  his  services,  in  his  appointment  by  the  king  to  the 
rank  of  brigadier-general,  with  the  command  of  the 
southern  department  in  North  America.  Col.  Bou 
quet  did  not,  however,  long  survive  to  fulfill  the 
hopes  inspired  by  his  remarkable  excellences  and 
success  ;  for  he  was  carried  off  by  a  fever  at  Pensa- 
cola,  only  three  years  afterward. 

Colonel  Bradstreet,  permitting  himself  to  be  de 
luded  by  the  Indians  as  I  have  stated,  accomplished 
but  a  small  part  of  his  intended  purposes ;  but  he 
effectually  relieved  Detroit,  which  had  now  been  be 
sieged  more  or  less  closely  for  fifteen  months — for 
Pontiac  had  recommenced  the  siege  in  the  spring. 

Shut  out  from  hopes  of  success  elsewhere,  Pontiac 
now  passed  into  the  Illinois  country,  whither  the  Eng 
lish  forces  had  not  yet  penetrated,  and  with  untiring 
activity  began  to  organize  a  new  league  of  those 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  199 

tribes  that  inhabited  Illinois  and  dwelt  along  the 
banks  of  the  Mississippi  Kiver.  His  design  was  to 
keep  closed  to  the  English  the  rich  country  of  the 
Illinois,  by  guarding  the  two  approaches  to  it,  by  the 
Mississippi  and  by  the  Ohio.  But  although  two 
attempts  to  ascend  the  Mississippi  with  detachments 
of  British  troops  were  unsuccessful,  this  last  plan  of 
the  great  Indian  leader  was  frustrated  by  the  negotia 
tion  of  an  English  envoy,  the  fur-trader  George  Crog- 
han,  who  moved  westward  to  prepare  a  path  for  the 
troops  which  Gage,  Amherst's  successor,  proposed  to 
send  to  take  possession  of  the  ancient  French  strong 
hold  of  Fort  Chartres.  Finding  himself  deserted  by 
one  discouraged  tribe  after  another,  and  failing  to  ob 
tain  any  aid  from  the  French,  either  in  Illinois  or  at 
New  Orleans,  he  at  last  resolved  to  seek  peace  with 
the  English  ;  and  meeting  Croghan  at  Fort  Ouatanon 
on  the  Wabash,  he  concluded  an  alliance  with  him, 
which  he  confirmed  at  a  great  council  of  the  northern 
tribes  held  a  short  time  afterward  at  Detroit ;  ending 
his  speech  as  any  other  Indian  would,  by  begging  for 
rum. 

Next  spring  the  great  chief  proceeded  eastward  to 
Oswego,  where  he  again  confirmed  his  alliance  with 
the  English,  and  gave  up  the  vast  plans  which 
he  had  conceived  for  the  preservation  of  the  Indian 
race.  Carrying  many  valuable  gifts,  he  returned 
westward  to  the  Maumee.  Here  we  lose  sight  of  him 


200  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

for  four  years,  which  he  doubtless  spent  in  hunting 
or  in  feud,  like  his  warrior  brethren. 

In  April,  1769,  he  suddenly  and  for  the  last  time 
reappears,  coming  out  of  his  woods  into  the  Illinois 
country,  to  the  great  uneasiness  of  the  English 
traders  in  those  parts.  He  crosses  the  great  river 
and  visits  his  old  friend  St.  Ange  de  Bellerive,  now 
commanding  at  St.  Louis  for  the  Spaniards.  After  a 
time  he  hears  of  some  meeting  of  Indians  across 
the  river  at  Cahokia,  assembled  there  for  pleasure ; 
and  in  spite  of  the  persuasions  of  St.  Ange,  who 
knew  the  enmity  of  the  brutal  British  fur-traders,  he 
persists  in  going ;  expressing  his  contempt  for  the 
English.  At  Cahokia,  he  receives  invitation  after 
invitation  from  one  friend  and  another,  and  accepts 
all.  Drinking  himself  drunk,  he  goes  out  of  the 
village  into  the  woods,  singing  magic  songs.  An 
English  fur-trader,  seeing  him,  promptly  gives  a 
miserable  Kaskaskia  Indian  a  barrel  of  liquor  to  kill 
him,  and  promises  him  something  more.  The  wretch 
followed  Pontiac,  crept  up  behind  him,  and  clove  his 
head  with  his  hatchet. 

The  few  followers  of  the  murdered  chieftain  who 
would  have  avenged  his  death,  were  driven  out  of 
the  village.  But  the  news  of  the  death  of  the  great 
war-chief  spread  quickly  and  far ;  and  his  Ottawas 
and  their  confederate  tribes,  gathering  together, 
came  down  upon  the  treacherous  and  cowardly 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  201 

Illinois,  exterminated  all  but  thirty  families  of  them, 
and  a  few  years  afterward  cut  off  all  this  wretched 
remnant,  utterly  extinguishing  the  tribe  by  the 
adoption  of  the  few  children  who  alone  were  saved 
alive. 

St.  Ange  caused  the  body  of  the  slain  warrior  to 
be  brought  across  the  Mississippi  and  buried.  ~No 
man  knows  the  place  of  his  grave  ;  but  it  is  some 
where  beneath  the  multitudinous  tread  of  the  busy 
crowds  that  throng  the  city  of  St.  Louis.  There  he 
sleeps ;  and  far  away  to  the  northward  still  are 
vanishing  into  further  wildernesses,  into  the  spirit 
land,  the  decreasing  bands  of  the  Algonquins,  who 
yet  retain  the  memory  of  their  greatest  chieftain. 
Over  them  is  rushing,  as  it  already  rushes  over 
his  forgotten  bones,  the  vast  irresistible  ocean  of  the 
power  of  the  white  race.  And  as  most  of  them  are 
already  laid,  so  their  scattered  remainder  soon  shall 
lie,  trodden  under  foot,  unknown,  unremembered ; 
existing,  even  in  history,  only  as  a  legend  and  a 
tradition.  Pontiac,  sleeping  beneath  the  lofty, 
crowded  houses  of  St.  Louis,  lies  there,  the  symbol 
and  the  prophecy  of  his  race,  and  of  its  doom. 

Besides  Pontiac  himself,  there  are  perhaps  none 
of  the  actors  in  this  story  whom  we  need  follow 
further,  unless  it  be  the  beautiful  Ojibwa  girl, 
Catharine,  whose  warning  saved  Detroit.  She  was, 

8* 


202  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

it  is  said,  severely  whipped  by  Pontiac  himself. 
And  there  is  a  further  tradition  that  she  grew  old, 
haggish,  and  drunken,  as  the  Indian  women  do  ;  and 
that  in  a  drunken  fit,  she  fell  into  a  great  kettle 
of  boiling  maple  sap,  and  died  miserably. 


Lecture    V. 

THE 

C  A.  B  I  :N     HOMES 

OF  THE  WILDERNESS, 

AT    THE    BEGINNING    OP    THE    REVOLUTION. 


CABIN"  HOMES  OF  THE  WILDERNESS 

AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

IN  the  year  1768,  there  was  assembled  at  Fort 
Stanwix,  in  central  New  York,  on  the  site  of  the  pre 
sent  city  of  Rome,  a  council  of  the  confederated  Six 
Nations,  or  Iroquois,  under  the  supervision  and  influ 
ence  of  Sir  William  Johnson,  the  British  agent  for 
Indian  affairs.  It  was  much  desired  by  sundry  par 
ties  interested,  that  a  title  to  an  immense  region  of 
country  lying  west  of  the  mountains  should,  in  some 
""way  or  other,  be  secured  from  the  Indians  ;  and  as 
these  bold  adventurers,  the  Iroquois,  the  wild  rovers, 
who  laid  under  contribution  their  red  brethren  from 
the  seaboard  coasts  of  Maine  upon  the  east,  to  the 
fast-rushing  flood  of  the  Father  of  Waters  upon  the 
west,  exacting  taxes  paid  equally  by  the  Shawnees 
and  Illinois,  and  by  the  Delawares  and  the  Hurons — 
as  these  wild  rovers  claimed  large  districts  of  country 
besides  those  which  they  themselves  occupied,  the 
agents  of  the  British  government  thought  it  well  to 
secure  this  title  from  them.  They  claimed,  in  virtue 
of  their  conquests,  the  whole  region  of  country  lying 

205 


PIONEERS,    PEEACHEES    AND    PEOPLE 

upon  the  south  of  the  Ohio,  running  from  that  river 
on  the  north  through  the  whole  extent  of  the  country 
traversed  by  the  Cumberland  and  Tennessee  rivers. 
At  this  council,  assembled  about  the  1st  of  Novem 
ber,  1768,  Sir  William  Johnson,  who  had  arranged 
the  details  and  particulars  beforehand,  with  an  un 
scrupulous  skill  worthy  of  a  modern  politician,  and  by 
means  of  a  series  of  gifts  and  presents  to  these  hardy 
warriors,  made  the  purchase,  securing,  in  the  first 
place,  that  whole  region  lying  between  the  mouth  of 
the  Cherokee  or  Tennessee  River  upon  the  westward, 
and  the  Kanawha  at  the  east,  for  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain ;  and  the  lands  from  the  Kanawha  on  the 
west  to  the  Monongahela  on  the  east,  for  such  tra 
ders  as  had  been  defrauded  or  injured  during  the  war 
of  Pontiac.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  these  Indians 
had,  in  truth,  no  more  right  and  title  to  that  land 
than  you ;  and  yet,  by  the  action  of  its  agents  and 
officers,  the  British  government  executed  this  agree 
ment,  and  by  virtue  of  it,  henceforth  claimed  all  that 
district  of  country  lying  west  of  the  Monongahela 
and  south  of  the  Ohio  river. 

Under  this  treaty  it  was  determined  to  make  a 
grant  of  200,000  acres  to  such  officers  and  soldiers  as 
had  been  engaged  in  the  old  French  war,  and  to  lo 
cate  it  just  west  of  the  Kanawha  Eiver,  within  the 
limits  of  the  present  State  of  Kentucky. 

And  now — casting  a  rapid  glance  to  another  por- 


OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI.  207 

tion  of  our  present  vast  territory — about  the  year 
1770  we  shall  find  coasting  along  the  borders  of  Lake 
Superior  upon  the  northward,  ascertaining  particu 
lars  and  gaining  information  regarding  the  copper 
mines  of  that  district,  passing  thence  westward  across 
the  Mississippi  Eiver,  and  making  a  long  and  perilous 
journey  into  the  country  of  the  Dacotali  or  Sioux 
Indians,  a  bold  and  hardy  captain  from  Connecticut, 
one  Jonathan  Carver.  He  called  the  attention  of  the 
British  government  and  of  the  eastern  colonists  to  the 
boundless  mineral  and  agricultural  wealth  within  the 
district  he  had  traversed,  and  bore  the  first  intel 
ligence  of  a  credible  and  authentic  character  in  re 
gard  to  the  Oregon  or  Columbia  River,  and  the 
country  lying  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

We  shall  find  at  the  same  time  floating  down  the 
Beautiful  River  of  the  French — the  Ohio — a  person 
to  whom  we  have  had  occasion  before  to  allude,  the 
young  athletic  Virginian,  George  "Washington ;  hav 
ing,  in  common  with  his  brethren,  that  American 
peculiarity,  a  powerful  instinct  for  good  land,  a 
strong  desire  after  real  estate.  Pursuing  his  meander 
ing  course,  in  flat-boat  or  canoe,  down  the  peaceful 
current  of  this  river,  comes  this  young  Virginian,  to 
locate  his  own  right  as  an  officer  in  the  French  war, 
and  also  the  claims  of  his  brother  soldiers  and  officers. 
His  eye  having  been  early  disciplined  in  his  pursuits 
as  a  surveyor,  and  long  accustomed  to  wander  as  fo- 


208  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

rester  and  woodman,  he  became  familiar  with  all 
forms  and  phases  of  nature,  a  lover  of  beautiful  scen 
ery,  and  at  the  same  time  skilled  in  estimating  and 
selecting  good  lands.  He  revels  in  the  panorama  of 
magnificence  outspread  before  him.  Here  a  stately 
deer  is  browsing  upon  the  river  bluff,  and  yonder  an 
other  of  his  brethren  steps  proudly  down  to  slake  his 
thirst  in  the  peaceful  stream.  Here  herds  of  buffalo 
are  quietly  wandering  and  grazing  at  their  will.  The 
woods  are  crowded  with  flocks  of  wild  turkeys ;  and 
everywhere  around  him,  in  the  beautiful  summer  sea 
son  of  the  year,  everything  on  earth  wears  the  bright 
est  smile  of  benignity  and  beauty;  and  heart  and  eye 
of  our  Virginian  gladden  and  are  ravished  with  de 
light.  He  forms  the  purpose  of  becoming  a  settler  of 
the  West,  and  but  for  the  near  outbreak  of  the  Ame 
rican  Kevolution,  no  doubt  George  Washington  would 
have  been  a  great  pioneer  of  western  civilization, 
leaving  his  impress  upon  its  grateful  and  virgin  soil, 
as  durably  and  lastingly  as  he  has  now  left  it  upon 
our  whole  continent. 

Just  before  this  period,  a  long  series  of  outrageous 
and  oppressive  proceedings  by  the  government  offi 
cers  of  North  Carolina,  supported  and  encouraged  by 
the  royal  governor  himself,  the  rigid,  overbearing 
and  haughty  Tryon,  had  thoroughly  alienated  the 
affections  of  that  colony  from  the  English  govern 
ment.  The  sheriffs,  as  collectors,  had  levied  enor- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  209 

mous  illegal  taxes,  for  their  own  private  gain ;  and 
the  courts  were  courts  of  anything  but  justice.  In 
their  well-founded  indignation,  all  the  inland  inhabi 
tants  formed  themselves  into  bodies  of  so-called 
"Regulators,"  and  while  they  administered  a  rude 
but  honest  justice  among  themselves,  broke  up  and 
prohibited  the  sitting  of  the  oppressive  regular 
courts.  These  hardy  men  violently  and  successfully 
opposed  the  stamp  act ;  and  Governor  Tryon,  irritated 
by  their  continued  resistance  to  the  tyranny  of  him 
self  and  his  creatures,  issuing  from  the  executive  pa 
lace,  headed  a  levy  of  the  militia,  and  on  the  river 
Alamance,  gave  battle  to  the  forces  of  the  Regula 
tors,  in  the  year  1771.  The  brave  countrymen,  like 
their  fellows  at  Bunker  Hill,  fought  until  their  pow 
der  was  all  expended,  and  then  sullenly  fled,  having 
lost  nine  of  their  own  number,  and  killed  just  thrice 
as  many  of  their  foes. 

Expecting  no  justice  while  under  the  sway  of  the 
British  lion,  and  exasperated  beyond  all  patience  at 
the  oppressions,  the  official  injustice  and  social  in 
dignities  they  had  vainly  opposed,  these  bold  and  de 
termined  men  resolved  to  flee  to  the  wilderness ;  from 
ancient  times  the  refuge  of  the  oppressed  and  the 
poor.  Deserting  their  homesteads  and  the  hearth 
stones  by  which  their  children  had  been  nursed,  and 
where  their  fondest  memories  were  garnered,  with  their 
teams,  their  flocks,  their  wives  and  little  ones,  they 


210  PIOXEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

toil  up  the  steep  ascents  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains, 
and  pass  westward  till  they  find  the  broad  alluvial 
lands  of  the  river  Watauga.  Here,  entering  into  a 
league  with  the  chief  men  of  the  Cherokee  nation, 
which  held  possession  of  this  country,  they  make  just 
and  legitimate  purchase  of  a  sufficient  extent  of  terri 
tory  to  answer  their  purpose  of  agricultural  pursuits. 
And  here,  under  leadership  of  Col.  James  Robert 
son,  one  of  the  noblest  pioneers  our  history  speaks  of, 
they  establish  the  first  Republic  ever  founded  upon  the 
soil  of  the  American  continent — despising  and  eschew 
ing  the  authority  of  England,  from  which  they  had 
only  received  wrong,  outrage,  betrayal,  and  their 
compatriots'  deaths.  Surrounded  by  the  grandeur  of 
the  great  primitive  forms  of  nature,  the  towering  moun 
tain  lifting  its  great  peak  to  the  clouds,  the  plains  all 
beautiful  with  the  white  of  the  abounding  strawberry 
blossom,  or  the  rich  red  of  its  fruit ;  the  rhododen 
dron,  with  its  bright  and  genial  hues,  and  the  azalea, 
making  all  the  forests  crimson  with  a  touch  of  fire — 
here  these  hardy  men  plant  themselves,  and  begin  to 
carry  their  explorations  and  surveys  far  to  the  west 
ward.  This  is  the  germ  and  the  birth-place  of  the 
present  State  of  Tennessee. 

Still  further  to  the  southwest,  we  find  strange  events 
transpiring  upon  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  present  city  of  Natchez, 
wliere  stood  the  old  French  Fort  Rosalie,  named  after 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  211 

the  fair  dame  of  the  great  French  nobleman,  Count 
Pontchartrain.  During  the  old  French  war,  in 
1755-6,  General  Phineas  Lyman,  of  Durham,  in  Con 
necticut,  had  buckled  on  the  harness  of  war,  and  had 
approved  himself  a  valiant  and  noble  leader,  doing 
faithful  service  in  behalf  of  the  colonies  until  the  con 
clusion  of  the  war.  His  valor  and  constancy,  his 
rare  power  of  combination,  masterful  accuracy  in  de 
tails,  and  able  generalship,  had  gained  him  a  place  so 
high  in  the  confidence  of  his  countrymen,  that  the 
reputation  which  he  won  so  well  in  his  office  of  ma 
jor-general  and  command er-in-chief  of  the  Connecti 
cut  forces,  and  as  commander  of  the  expedition  to 
Havana,  in  1762,  was  second  to  that  of  no  man  in 
America.  Men  high  in  place  in  England  had  also 
repeatedly  invited  the  able,  eminent  and  accom 
plished  provincial  soldier  to  visit  the  mother  country. 
Organizing  an  association  under  the  name  of  the 
"  Military  Adventurers,"  of  the  soldiers  and  officers 
of  the  war  just  ended,  he  accordingly  proceeded  to 
England  as  its  agent,  to  solicit  for  it  a  grant  of  the 
desert  lands  lying  on  the  Yazoo  and  Mississippi 
rivers.  For  these  associates  had  heard  marvellous 
stories  of  the  richness  of  the  land  in  the  Southwest, 
and  desired  to  settle  upon  so  fair  a  domain ;  judging 
that  they  had  a  right  to  claim  the  grant  in  return  for 
their  services  to  the  British  government.  Gen.  Lyman 
arrived  in  England ;  but  instead  of  meeting  a  kind 


212  PIONEERS,    PREACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

reception  and  a  cordial  acknowledgment  of  his  ser 
vices,  was  treated  with  coldness  and  contempt,  and 
with  mean  and  cruel  ingratitude.  He  was  deluded 
with  promise  after  promise,  and  delay  after  delay, 
even  for  years;  until  the  discovery  of  this  long  series  of 
cheatings  came  upon  him  with  such  crushing  violence 
that  he  fell  into  absolute  listless  despondency.  The 
noble  soldier  whose  spirit  had  passed  undismayed 
through  perils  of  sea  and  land,  Indian  ambuscade  and 
pitched  battle,  unable  to  bear  the  thought  of  return 
ing,  deluded,  to  his  deluded  friends,  sadly  determined 
to  bear  his  fancied  ignominy  as  best  he  might,  in 
distant  England,  and  to  lay  his  dishonored  bones 
there. 

Thus  the  unhappy  General  Lymaii  wasted  eleven 
years  of  the  prime  of  life,  absent  from  that  home 
which  he  had  left  in  the  flush  of  present  success,  and 
with  still  more  radiant  hopes  beaming  from  the  fu 
ture — a  home  made  sacred  and  beautiful,  and  happy, 
by  a  lovely  wife,  by  beloved,  intelligent,  refined  and 
highly  educated  children.  And  when  the  faithful 
and  patient  wife  could  endure  the  long  heart-break 
no  more,  she  sent  her  eldest-born  to  England  to  bring 
back  his  father. 

The  unhappy  father,  his  paternal  affection  awak 
ened  at  the  sight  of  his  boy,  consents  to  return  ;  and 
the  more  readily,  as  the  British  government  has,  with 
a  liberality  too  late  exercised,  at  last  made  the  de- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  213 

sired  grant,  at  the  intended  spot,  within  the  limits  of 
the  present  State  of  Mississippi,  and  in  what  was  then 
called  western  Florida.  To  General  Lyman  himself 
was  given  a  special  grant  of  lands  broad  enough 
for  future  wealth;  and  a  promise — never  fulfilled 
— of  a  pension  of  £200  a  year.  But  many  of  the 
grantees  were  now  hoary  old  men,  and  all  were 
aged  beyond  the  period  of  life  when  men  remove 
into  wildernesses  to  undertake  the  rude,  exhausting 
labors  of  founding  new  communities.  But  Gen.  Ly 
man  came  home,  with  his  grant.  His  oldest  son,  a 
youth  of  brilliant  promise,  had  completed  his  studies, 
received  and  held  a  commission  in  the  army,  and 
given  it  up  for  the  practice  of  law  ;  had  felt  to  the 
full  the  effects  of  all  these  high  hopes  so  long  de 
ferred,  which  prevented  him  from  earnest  devotion 
to  the  law.  The  long  weary  suspense  and  doubt 
hanging  over  his  own  prospects,  had  destroyed  health 
of  body  and  mind  together,  and  when  the  wretched 
father  met  him,  he  had  sunk  from  brokenheartedness 
into  lunacy.  But  he  carried  the  hapless  youth  away, 
hoping  that  new  atmospheres  and  new  scenes  might 
give  him  back  his  health ;  and  with  a  few  friends 
proceeded  to  West  Florida,  and  located  his  grant. 
Scarcely  had  he  done  so,  when  his  son  died.  In  the 
next  year,  1775,  the  desolate  father  followed  him 
to  the  grave.  In  1776,  Mrs.  Lyman  came  to  this 
fatal  country,  with  her  only  brother  and  all  her  child- 


214:  PIONEERS,    PREACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

ren  except  one  son.  She  died  in  a  few  months  ;  and 
next  summer  her  brother  died. 

This  expedition,  which  sailed  from  Middletown,  May 
1st,  1776,  passed  through  a  battle  with  misfortune  so 
long,  so  varied,  and  so  terrible,  that  it  deserves  some 
thing  more  than  a  mere  reference.  Let  us  briefly 
trace  the  affecting  story.  Reaching  Xew  Orleans, 
August  1st,  1776,  they  begin  to  ascend  the  Missis 
sippi  in  open  boats.  Day  after  day  passes ;  and  they 
are  yet  dragging  their  heavily-laden  craft  against  the 
furious  current,  through  sickly  airs,  and  under  the  ex 
hausting  southern  sun.  The  malaria  of  the  swamps 
begins  its  fearful  work,  and  one  and  another  of  the 
hardy  emigrants  sicken  and  die  ;  while  the  fated  sur 
vivors,  with  diminished  strength,  more  slowly  drag 
the  heavy  boats  up  stream.  Boat  after  boat  is  left — the 
crew  too  feeble  to  draw  it — fastened  to  the  willows  or 
anchored  in  the  current ;  among  them  that  of  Captain 
Matthew  Phelps.  Reaching  Natchez,  the  minister 
of  the  party,  Mr.  Smith,  who,  in  genuine  Puritan 
style,  had  accompanied  them  from  Connecticut,  falls 
a  victim  to  the  fever.  The  remainder  of  the  party  at 
last  reaches  the  site  of  the  intended  settlement,  where 
General  Lyman  had,  before  his  death,  made  some 
small  improvements ;  and  here  it  is  that  Madam  Ly 
man  follows  her  hapless  husband  to  another  world. 

Captain  Phelps,  who  was  left  below  on  the  river, 
still  remained  there,  his  family  so  reduced  by  fever- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  215 

and-ague  that  they  could  only,  at  intervals,  wait  on 
each  other  at  all.  His  daughter  Abigail  soon  died, 
and  the  mourning  father  buried  her  on  the  bank,  dig 
ging  her  grave  with  his  own  hands.  This  was  in  the 
early  part  of  Sept.,  1776.  On  the  16th,  an  infant 
son,  born  at  sea  on  the  voyage  out,  died,  and  the  fa 
ther  again  dug  a  grave  and  buried  his  boy  by  the 
side  of  his  daughter.  A  companion  in  misery,  named 
Flowers,  who  had  lost  all  his  family,  now  overtook 
Phelps,  and  joining  forces,  they  put  the  property  of 
both  in  a  larger  boat,  and  worn  down  almost  to  skele 
tons,  began  again  the  ascent  of  the  river.  They  were 
still  toiling  upward  on  the  12th  of  October,  when,  a 
little  above  Natchez,  Mrs.  Phelps  died,  at  the  house 
of  a  hospitable  planter  named  Alston,  who  gave  her 
a  decent  burial.  Moving  onward  again,  Capt.  Phelps 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Black,  on  which  river 
his  lands  lay,  on  the  24th  of  Nov.;  having  been  almost 
a  hundred  days  in  making  the  trip  from  New  Orleans, 
which  now  occupies  a  few  hours.  Weakened  by  dis 
ease  beyond  the  power  of  labor,  Phelps  here  hired  a 
man  and  boy  to  help  him  up  the  river,  and  himself, 
with  the  boy,  labored  at  the  tow-line,  leaving  the  man 
on  board  to  steer.  The  boat  glides  into  an  eddy,  or 
'  suck,"  and  her  stern  catching  under  a  willow,  the 
steersman  is  thrown  out,  but  being  a  sturdy  swim 
mer,  escapes  to  the  shore.  Phelps's  two  remaining 
children,  a  boy  of  five  and  a  girl  of  ten  years  of  age, 


216  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

worn  down  by  their  long  and  clinging  sickness,  are 
sitting  listlessly  upon  the  bed  where  they  have  suf 
fered  so  much.  The  father,  from  whose  arms  one 
after  another  of  his  beloved  has  been  wrested  so  ter 
ribly,  in  a  transport  of  agony,  seeing  the  boat  cir 
cling  in  the  whirlpool,  hastily  ties  the  line  to  a  tree, 
and  not  being  able  to  swim,  creeps  out  on  the  willow 
that  holds  down  the  boat,  hoping  to  rescue  the  child 
ren  and  carry  them  ashore.  He  reaches  the  boat, 
and  his  added  weight  bears  down  the  treacherous 
willow,  and  the  stern  under  it.  But  begging  the  sis 
ter  to  sit  still  while  he  saves  her  brother,  the  fright 
ened  man  calls  his  boy ;  the  little  fellow  is  wading 
through  the  water  in  the  boat  toward  his  father,  when 
a  high  wave  strikes  the  bow,  it  is  carried  instantly 
under,  and  the  two  children  are  swept  almost  out  of 
his  very  arms  into  the  devouring  whirl  of  the  river. 
Standing  helplessly  upon  the  dangerous  tree,  the  mis 
erable  man  sees  them  rise  once,  clasped  in  each 
other's  arms,  and  then  they  disappear  forever  beneath 
the  boiling  muddy  water ;  and  bereft  before  of  wife, 
daughter,  infant,  and  now  of  all  his  little  ones — every 
tie  to  earth  thus  rudely  severed,  and,  though  it  is 
scarcely  worth  the  naming  in  addition,  his  little 
property  swept  into  the  gulf,  too — the  lonely,  desolate 
man  sadly  escapes  to  the  shore  and  ascends  slowly  to 
the  place  of  his  proposed  settlement.  A  brutal  squat 
ter  has  usurped  his  claim,  and  under  the  protection 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  217 

of  the  custom  of  the  land,  defies  him.  Thus  left  ab 
solutely  alone  and  penniless,  he  turns  his  face  again 
to  his  distant  native  State ;  and  there,  it  is  pleasant  to 
know,  after  so  many  bitter  sorrows,  he  passed  the  re 
mainder  of  his  clays  in  peace  and  comfort ;  and  saw 
another  wife,  and  other  little  children,  within  a  happy 
home.  He  often  told  the  story  of  his  sufferings .  to 
friend  or  neighbor,  narrating  one  disaster  after  an 
other  with  the  steady  resignation  of  a  Christian — all 
but  one  terrible  sight.  He  could  not  speak  of  the 
moment  when  the  flood  swallowed  down  his  two 
youngest  close  before  his  eyes. 

The  survivors  of  this  sturdy  band  of  Connecticut 
farmers,  after  struggling  through  so  many  obstacles, 
became  thrifty  and  successful  planters  in  the  country 
round  Natchez,  with  handsome  dwellings,  large 
estates,  and  scores  of  slaves. 

But  time  passed  on,  and  the  American  Eevolution 
broke  out.  All  these  Connecticut  people  were  ardent 
loyalists.  The  contagion  of  independence  had  not 
been  carried  so  far  as  their  distant  dwellings.  An 
agent  of  the  American  Congress,  Oliver  Pollock,  had 
descended  from  Pittsburg  to  New  Orleans,  then  in 
the  possession  of  the  Spaniards,  and  made  arrange 
ments  with  the  Spanish  authorities  to  supply  the  set 
tlements  upon  the  Kentucky,  the  Cumberland,  Ten 
nessee,  and  other  whig  American  settlements,  with 
ammunition  to  carry  on  the  war.  And  a  little  after, 

10 


218  PIOXEEES,    PEEACHEES    AND   PEOPLE 

in  1779,  there  descends  the  river  one  John  Willing, 
a  citizen  of  Philadelphia,  with  an  American  commis 
sion  as  colonel.  He  is  plausible  of  speech  and  of 
winning  address ;  he  visits  these  loyal  settlers  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Natchez  and  in  other  parts  of  Mis 
sissippi,  gathers  them  together,  makes  them  many  ora 
tions,  wins  their  confidence,  and  binds  them  by  oath 
to  strict  neutrality.  They  are  unwilling  wholly  to 
renounce  allegiance  to  the  British  crown,  but  promise 
not  to  interfere  in  the  struggle  then  going  on.  "Wil 
ling  then,  ascending  the  river  with  a  small  force, 
seizes,  by  stratagem,  a  British  war  vessel  lying  there, 
carries  her  to  New  Orleans,  sells  her  to  the  Spanish 
authorities,  and  with  the  proceeds  spends  his  time, 
with  his  companions,  in  riotous  living  and  debauch 
ery,  instead  of  applying  the  money  to  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  intended — the  purchase  of  arms.  Hav 
ing  wasted  the  whole,  he  reascends  the  river,  ravages 
and  pillages  the  estates  in  the  neighborhood  of  Baton 
Rouge,  then  in  the  possession  of  the  English,  and 
commences  the  reascent  of  the  Mississippi  to  do  the 
same  at  the  settlements  of  Natchez.  Our  Connecti 
cut  settlers  in  that  region,  and  their  neighbors,  valor 
ous  men,  hearing  of  the  conduct  of  the  desperado, 
and  all  faith  in  him — and,  unfortunately,  in  the  Ame 
rican  cause — thus  destroyed,  collect  themselves  to 
gether,  armed  and  equipped,  to  punish  him,  or  at 
least  to  prevent  his  piratical  designs.  He  reaches 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  219 

the  neighborhood  of  the  spot  where  they  are  fortified, 
crosses  to  the  other  side  of  the  river,  and  then,  by 
means  of  his  artillery,  treacherously  opens  fire  on 
them  under  cover  of  a  flag  of  truce.  This  they  re 
turn  with  such  hearty  good  will  that  some  of  his  men 
are  killed  and  some  taken  prisoners.  He  and  the  re 
mainder  of  them  return  to  New  Orleans,  and  from 
there  he  escapes  into  the  country  on  the  banks 'of  the 
Alabama  Eiver.  The  conduct  of  this  desperado 
shook  all  confidence  and  faith,  on  the  part  of  the  set 
tlers,  in  the  integrity  and  character  of  the  American 
struggle  for  independence  ;  and  very  justly  consider 
ing  themselves  absolved  from  their  oath  of  neutrality, 
they  resolved  to  remain  loyal  to  the  crown  of  England. 
About  this  period  France  gave  evidence  of  its  lean 
ing  to  the  American  cause  of  independence ;  where 
upon  the  English  government,  in  anger,  declared  war 
against  France.  Spain,  also,  which  had  been  the 
firm  ally  of  France,  gave  favorable  consideration  to 
the  designs  of  the  revolutionists ;  and  England,  includ 
ing  her  within  the  ban,  declared  war  against  Spain. 
The  Spanish  government  decided  to  attack  the  British 
in  Louisiana ;  and  Don  Galvez,  governor  of  New 
Orleans,  ascended  the  river,  took  all  the  British  posts 
as  far  as  Natchez,  and  then  returned  to  capture  Mo 
bile  and  Pensacola.  The  loyalists,  including  Col. 
Philip  Austin,  John  Austin,  Col.  Hutchins,  Mr.  Ly- 
man,  Dr.  Dwight,  and  various  other  of  the  Connect!- 


220  PIONEERS,    PKEACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

cut  emigrants  before  named,  now  large  holders  of 
real  estate,  were  unwilling  to  submit  to  the  autho 
rity  of  Spain.  Arming  themselves,  they  attacked  the 
weak  garrison  left  in  Fort  Panmure,  formerly  Fort 
Rosalie,  at  Natchez,  and  succeeded,  by  stratagem  and 
other  means,  in  dispossessing  the  Spanish.  They 
heard,  furthermore,  that  a  large  British  fleet  was 
coming  to  chastise  the  Spanish  upon  the  Gulf;  but, 
sorrowful  to  tell,  just  after  their  success  in  ejecting 
the  Spanish  from  the  fort,  they  learned  that  these  ac 
counts  of  coming  fleets  were  all  deceptive  and  untrue. 
And  now  Don  Galvez,  having  taken  Mobile  and  Pen- 
sacola,  invested  with  great  honors  and  powers,  is 
about  to  come  and  punish  these  disobedient  British 
subjects  of  Spain.  But  they,  well  knowing  the 
treacherous  and  cruel  nature  of  the  Spaniards,  re 
solve,  rather  than  to  await  their  coming  and  to  abide 
their  revenge,  to  abandon  their  homes  and  undertake 
the  long  and  adventurous  journey  to  the  settlements 
in  Georgia.  Before  them  is  a  trackless  wilderness,  then 
lying  between  the  Mississippi  River  on  the  west  and 
the  Ogeechee  upon  the  east — a  tract  of  country  inha 
bited  only  by  wild  beasts  and  wilder  savages.  "With 
the  bloodhounds  of  Spain  upon  their  track,  more 
than  one  hundred  of  these  people  set  out,  mounted 
upon  horses  with  their  wives  and  little  ones,  some  of 
the  children  in  arms,  with  their  servants  and  move- 
ables  upon  pack-horses,  and  proceed  norteastwardly, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

in  hopes  to  reach  the  prairie  region  of  Mississippi. 
This  is  the  month  of  May,  1781.  It  is  an  unusually 
dry  spring.  They  gain  the  prairie  country,  and  no 
water  is  to  be  found.  Far  in  the  distance  before 
them,  as  the  mariner  at  sea  beholds  what  he  supposes 
islands  near  the  blue  horizon,  so  rise  upon  the  level 
prairie  clumps  of  trees,  and  here  they  hope  for  water. 
Toward  that  they  press,  only  to  be  disappointed.  Thir 
ty-six  hours  have  passed,  yet  no  drop  of  cooling  liquid 
has  touched  their  lips  or  tongues.  At  length  a  camp 
is  formed.  The  women  and  children  are  deposited 
here,  and  the  men  start  out  in  parties  to  search  for 
the  precious  liquid.  The  whole  day  is  passed ;  they 
return,  faint,  weary,  and  despairing,  their  tongues 
hanging  out  of  their  mouths,  and  fall  upon  the  ground 
utterly  dejected  and  brokenhearted.  In  this  emer 
gency,  when  man's  hardihood  and  courage  has  failed, 
female  instinct  and  energy  step  forward.  Mrs. 
Dwight,  wife  of  Dr.  Dwight,  sallies  from  the  camp, 
attended  by  several  women  and  one  or  two  men. 
They  reach  a  tract  of  ground  at  the  foot  of  a  couple 
of  hills,  where,  in  a  spongy  spot,  she  bids  the  men  to 
dig.  The  spades  are  stoutly  handled ;  they  come  to 
moist  earth,  to  trickling  drops,  and  after  a  little  they 
stay  their  hands  ;  for  a  pure  and  beautiful  fountain 
of  water  gushes  up.  Thank  God !  is  the  universal 
exclamation.  The  news  is  borne  backward  to  the 
camp,  and  now  all  the  party,  men,  women,  and  child- 


222  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

ren,  and  their  patient,  suffering  beasts,  rush  wildly  to 
the  fountain — a  fountain  of  life  in  a  parched  and 
thirsty  land.  Dr.  Dwight  stations  guards  about  the 
spring,  to  prevent  an  intemperate  use  of  the  pure  ele 
ment;  and  all  through  the  livelong  night,  men  and 
women,  and  jaded  horses,  allowed  to  slake  their 
thirst  quietly  and  by  slow  degrees,  drink  and  drink, 
with  a  thirst  almost  unquenchable.  And  now  they 
turn  to  the  northwestward  to  avoid  the  Indians,  the 
Chickasaws  on  the  one  side  and  the  Choctaws  on 
the  other,  who,  it  is  feared,  are  in  league  with  the 
Spanish. 

Their  compass  is  lost,  and  they  have  no  guide 
except  the  sun  in  heaven,  which  is  often  concealed 
by  clouds,  for  now  the  weather  becomes  rainy  and 
inclement.  Ever  and  anon  a  prowling  party  of 
Indians,  under  the  shadow  of  the  night,  creep  into 
camp  and  run  off  horses  or  plunder  baggage.  And 
worse  than  all,  a  loathsome  disease  infects  the 
worn-out  company.  Having  wandered  northward, 
nearly  to  the  Tennessee  Eiver,  they  turn  about  and 
march  nearly  straight  south  again  to  near  the  present 
city  of  Aberdeen,  Mississippi,  where  they  cross  the 
Tombigbee  on  rafts  of  logs.  Thence  they  struggle 
through  the  wilderness  to  the  Black  "Warrior  Eiver, 
which  they  cross  at  Tuscaloosa  Falls ;  and  thence, 
afraid  to  follow  any  trail  for  fear  of  enemies,  they 
go  wandering  up  and  down  in  their  helpless  misery, 


OF  THE    MISSISSIPPI.  223 

until  they  find  themselves  in  the  mountainous 
regions  of  the  upper  part  of  Alabama.  Then  they 
direct  their  steps  toward  the  Georgian  settlements, 
hoping  to  reach  them  by  way  of  the  Cherokee 
nation.  One  day,  to  their  terror — for  a  human  form 
inspires  them  with  nameless  fears  of  Indian  ambus 
cades  and  savage  tortures — they  see  three  men 
advancing  on  the  rude  path  which  they  are  pursuing, 
to  meet  them.  The  strangers  advance,  and  are 
found  to  be  an  old  trader  among  the  Indians,  and 
two  Chickasaws  with  him.  The  rugged  frontiersman, 
shocked  at  the  wretched  appearance  of  the  forlorn 
and  famine-stricken  troop,  served  out  to  them  all 
his  provisions,  and  his  last  gallon  of  tafia  or  trading- 
rum.  He  added  to  his  kind  gifts,  kind  advice, 
admonishing  them  to  avoid  the  Tennessee  mountains, 
and  the  Cherokees,  who  were  mostly  whiggish  in 
alliance  and  feeling,  and  rather  to  turn  southward 
and  venture  themselves  among  the  Creeks,  trusting 
to  their  loyalist  attitude,  and  to  the  influence  and 
well-known  humanity  of  their  chief,  the  celebrated 
Colonel  Alexander  McGillivray. 

This  advice  they  implicitly  followed ;  turned  south 
ward  once  more  ;  once  more  crossed  the  intervening 
ranges  of  mountains,  for  two  hundred  miles,  often 
walking  with  feet  bare,  torn  and  bleeding ;  obliged 
to  lead  their  laden  horses  along  the  perilous  and 
pathless  rocks.  And  now  they  reach  the  Coosa 


224:  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

River,  in  Antauga  County,  in  central  Alabama. 
Exhausted  and  feeble,  the  deep,  strong  and  rapid 
current  and  the  dangerous  obstructing  rocks  of  the 
noble  river  are  obstacles  which  they  have  not 
strength  remaining  to  overcome,  and  they  lie  down 
upon  the  banks  in  listless  despair,  unable  even  to 
build  a  raft.  They  might  all  have  perished  in  their 
stupid  discouragement,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
courage  and  resolution  of  the  same  Mrs.  Dwight 
who  discovered  the  fountain  that  saved  their  lives 
before.  She  declared  that  if  there  was  even  one 
man  bold  enough  to  go  with  her,  she  would  at  least 
try  to  cross  the  river,  and  find  a  canoe  or  some  better 
ford.  Her  husband  and  one  other  man,  inspired  by 
her  brave  spirit,  swore  she  should  not  risk  her  life 
alone,  and  all  three  swam  their  horses  across  the 
stream ;  carried  down  by  the  current,  and  at  least 
once  plunged  completely  under  water,  by  leaping 
from  a  ledge.  On  the  other  side  they  found,  a  mile 
above,  a  large  canoe,  stove  on  the  rocks.  They 
repaired  it  as  well  as  they  could,  and  leaving 
Mrs.  Dwight  with  the  horses,  the  two  men  took  it 
down  to  their  friends;  and  by  the  end  of  the  next 
day  they  were  all  safely  across. 

Resuming  their  march,  after  proceeding  about 
twenty  miles  they  approach  a  Creek  town,  known  as 
the  Hickory  Ground,  at  the  present  town  of  We- 
tumpka.  Colonel  McGillivray,  the  celebrated  Creek 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  *      225 

ruler,  has  a  residence  there,  but  is  absent.  Afraid 
to  enter  the  village,  the  trembling  loyalists  send  in 
three  deputies  to  explain  their  condition  and  ask 
relief.  The  ambassadors  ride  into  the  Indian  town, 
along  the  path,  amongst  squaws  hoeing  corn,  and 
between  pleasant  cabins,  and  lazy  warriors,  basking 
in  the  sun.  But  at  the  sight  of  strangers  the  fierce 
savages  quickly  gather  about  them  in  a  dissatisfied 
and  increasingly  angry  crowd,  for  they  see  that  the 
saddles  are  not  Spanish,  like  those  of  their  allies,  but 
English,  like  those  of  their  unscrupulous  and  bitter 
foes,  the  Georgians.  The  wretched  deputies  in  vain 
set  forth  the  truth,  that  they  are  royalists,  friends  of 
King  George  and  of  the  Creek  nation ;  in  vain 
explain  whence  and  why  they  have  come,  and  urge 
their  helpless  state,  the  misery  of  their  company,  and 
their  frank  and  confiding  application.  The  savages 
converse  and  argue  together ;  their  tones  grow  fero 
cious,  their  eyes  begin  to  gleam  with  fury,  and  they 
handle  their  weapons.  The  unhappy  men  see  death 
close  before  them ;  they  and  their  hapless  friends  will 
end  their  long  desperate  journey  under  the  toma 
hawks  and  knives  of  these  fierce  Indians. 

A  negro  rides  up,  and  with  some  seeming  authority 
demands  the  cause  of  the  excitement.  It  is  Paro, 
body-servant  to  Col.  McGillivray,  this  moment  re 
turned  from  a  journey.  The  Indians  answer  that 
these  are  some  Georgians  whom  they  propose  to 

10* 


226      '          PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

kill.  But  the  deputies  quickly  tell  him  their  sad  and 
truthful  story,  and  he  believes  it,  and  tries  to  con 
vince  the  warriors.  But  though  he  adds  violent 
reproaches  to  persuasions  and  arguments,  they  simply 
answer  that  all  the  company  must  die.  An  ignorant 
but  fair-minded  warrior,  now  bethinking  himself  of 
the  strange  custom — which  he  takes  it  for  granted  is 
universal  among  all  the  whites — of  putting  talk  on 
paper,  all  at  once  calls  out — for  he  would  be  just, 
and  appeals  to  the  records — "  If  you  tell  the  truth, 
make  the  paper  talk !"  The  quick-witted  negro 
takes  a  hint  from  their  demand  and  asks  them  for  a 
journal  of  their  trip.  They  kept  none.  Then  have 
they  any  paper  with  writing  on  it  ?  They  search  in 
terror.  At  last,  one  of  them  finds  an  old  letter  in  his 
pocket.  Paro  tells  him  what  to  do,  and  how ;  and 
accordingly  he  reads  as  if  from  the  letter,  in  a  slow 
and  solemn  manner — it  may  be  believed  he  would 
not  lack  earnestness — a  full  and  detailed  account  of 
their  journey,  and  of  its  causes,  Paro  interpreting 
with  much  spirit  and  many  gestures.  As  the  reader 
proceeds,  the  wild  faces  of  his  audience  soften  and 
light  up,  and  putting  aside  their  weapons,  they  all 
come  up  to  the  deputies,  at  the  end  of  the  account, 
shake  hands  all  round,  welcome  them  to  the  town, 
and  presently  bringing  in  the  whole  company,  furnish 
them  good  lodging  and  bounteous  entertainment. 
After  abundant  rest  and  refreshment,  the  party 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  227 

proceeded  eastward,  separating  into  two  divisions. 
One  reached  Savannah,  and  the  other  was  taken  by 
the  whigs,  though  soon  released.  During  the  whole 
of  this  terrible  journey  of  one  hundred  and  forty-nine 
days  from  Natchez,  not  one  of  the  party  lost  his 
life. 

The  fatigues  and  dangers  of  the  way,  however,  had 
undermined  the  health  of  some  of  the  travellers ;  and 
two  daughters  of  Gen.  Lyman  died  after  reaching 
Savannah.  Three  of  their  brothers  were  also  mem 
bers  of  the  expedition ;  of  whom,  when  the  British 
left  Georgia,  one  went  to  Nova  Scotia,  one  to  New 
York,  and  one  to  New  Providence  in  the  island  of 
Nassau.  It  is  said  that  all  these  sons  died  of  broken 
hearts ;  and  as  Dr.  D wight  observes,  in  his  account 
of  General  Lyman's  misfortunes,  this  may  well  be 
termed  "  the  Unhappy  Family ;"  so  long  and  uninter 
rupted  was  the  series  of  crushing  misfortunes  which 
bore  them,  one  aftei*  another,  down  into  obscure 
graves. 

In  western  Pennsylvania  had  settled,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  century,  a  stout  Englishman  and  his  wife, 
whose  lands  had  increased,  and  his  children  had  mul 
tiplied  around  his  board.  To  him  was  born,  in  1735, 
his  son  Daniel  Eoone.  The  boy,  a  hunter  by  birth 
and  nature,  early  became  a  daring  and  skillful  woods 
man,  strong,  fleet  and  active,  and  unrivalled  in  the 
use  of  the  rifle.  He  was  but  eighteen  when  his  father 


228  PIONEEES,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

removed  to  the  upper  country  on  the  Yadkin,  among 
the  mountains  in  the  west  of  North  Carolina ;  rejoicing 
in  the  wild  and  noble  scenery,  the  primeval  forest, 
the  richness  of  the  virgin  soil  and  the  abounding  game. 
Here  Boone  married,  while  yet  young,  and  lived  for 
some  time,  hunting  and  farming ;  loving  and  beloved 
by  wife  and  children ;  but  yet  essentially  a  wild  and 
solitary  man,  spending  his  happiest  hours  alone  in  the 
woods,  hunting  sometimes,  and  often  enjoying  with  a 
strange  delight,  for  a  man  so  rude  and  unlettered,  the 
numberless  beauties  of  the  mountain  and  river  land 
scapes. 

In  the  spring  of  1769  he  had  already  become  un 
easy  at  the  approach  of  other  men ;  for  other  settlers 
were  planting  themselves  along  the  streams,  other 
hunters  were  wandering  in  the  woods ;  so  he  medi 
tates  an  expedition  into  the  unknown  forest  world 
beyond  the  mountains.  The  handles  of  the  plough 
are  dropped  in  the  furrow,  he  hastens  to  his  house, 
gathers  his  rifle  and  accoutrements,  and  starts  in  com 
pany  with  an  old  Indian  trader  and  hunter  named 
Finlay,  and  four  other  men.  They  commence  their 
journey  on  the  1st  of  May,  1769.  A  long,  toilsome 
way  they  follow  for  six  weeks.  Crossing  the  Alle- 
ghany,  the  iron  mountain,  to  the  Cumberland  Pass, 
they  come  out  upon  the  headwaters  of  the  Ivanawha, 
and  now  have  reached  the  goodly  land.  And  truly,  is 
it  not  an  Eden  ?  During  a  sojourn  of  six  and  a  half 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  229 

months,  feasting  his  eyes  with  the  glories  which  he 
can  enjoy  there  without  end — herds  of  buffalo  which 
no  man  can  number,  beautiful  springs  gushing  from 
every  hill-side,  wide,  wealthy  savannas,  broad  tree- 
fringed  rivers,  noble  forests,  and  all  the  unimaginable, 
solitary  splendors  of  a  rich  land,  without  human  inha 
bitant.  At  the  expiration  of  this  time,  Boone  and 
William  Stewart  are  taken  captive  by  the  Indians. 
The  remainder  of  the  company  are  frightened,  and 
hurry  homeward.  Boone  and  his  companion  remain 
in  the  hands  of  their  captors,  pretending  quiet  satis 
faction,  for  a  week  ;  then  easily  escape.  Not  a  great 
while  thereafter,  William  Stewart  is  shot  by  the  In 
dians  ;  and  now  Daniel  Boone  remains  alone.  The 
spring  of  the  year  comes  to  this  lonely  hunter,  wan 
dering  here  through  all  these  wide  and  pleasant  lands 
of  forest  and  prairie  and  canebrake,  which  the  Indians 
call  "The  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground."  Now  he  is 
joined  by  his  brother,  Squire  Boone,  a  man  who 
shares  many  peculiarities  with  himself.  For  a  year  and 
a  half  longer  do  these  intrepid  men  remain  in  Ken 
tucky,  when  Squire  Boone  returns  to  the  settlements 
for  a  fresh  supply  of  powder  and  lead,  while  Daniel 
remains  alone  in  the  wilderness,  surrounded  bv  savage 

«/  O 

foes  seeking  his  trail ;  yet  unfearing  and  defiant.  They 
go  in  groups ;  he  without  an  associate,  without  even 
a  dog  to  bear  him  company.  This  strange  safety  was 
assured  by  a  weed — a  thistle — which  grew  in  abund- 


230  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

ance  throughout  Kentucky,  as  if  Providence  had 
spread  a  carpet  of  safety  over  the  land  for  this  solitary 
wanderer.  On  this  humble  herb  the  foot  of  the  tra 
veller  leaves  a  peculiar  impress,  which  remains  long 
and  distinctly  ;  and  the  Indians,  the  lords  of  the  soil, 
numerous  and  bold,  tread  carelessly  as  they  rove 
across  their  hereditary  forests  and  prairies,  and  leave 
patent  to  the  trained  unerring  eye  of  the  solitary 
white  man  the  record  of  their  number  and  their  jour 
ney  ;  while  he,  avoiding  the  tell-tale  herb,  moves  un 
known  and  safe  from  one  hunting-ground  to  another. 
Thus,  to  his  eyes,  the  ground  is  covered  as  if  with  a 
sheet  of  snow,  bearing  the  impression  of  his  enemies' 
trails ;  while,  for  their  eyes,  no  snow  is  on  the  ground, 
and  his  step  has  left  no  trace.  Thus  wanders  this  one 
solitary  Anglo-Saxon,  glad  at  heart  in  the  revelation 
of  a  new  apocalypse  of  earthly  beauty ;  a  man  untaught 
in  books  and  erudition,  but  whose  eyes  often  overflow 
with  happy,  grateful  tears  as  he  looks  abroad  upon 
the  loveliness  of  nature,  tasting  the  sweetest  and  pro- 
foundest  things  of  God;  reading,  with  clear,  keen 
eye,  the  open  secret  which  nature  reveals  to  all 
her  children,  and  pursuing  his  way  of  peril  to  find  it 
a  way  of  delight  and  joy.  Having  fully  explored  the 
country  in  company  with  his  brother,  he  returns  to 
the  settlements.  The  tidings  he  brings  are  hailed 
with  rapture  by  the  people ;  but  two  years  are  allowed 
to  pass  before  active  measures  are  taken  to  assume 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  231 

the  occupancy  of  the  new  soil.  At  length  Boone  de 
parts  with  his  family,  having  first  shaken  hands  with 
all  his  neighbors  twice  round ;  for,  notwithstanding 
his  silent  ways,  he  is  much  beloved,  because  he  never 
omitted  an  opportunity  to  do  a  kindly  office  to  his 
brother  man,  at  whatever  inconvenience  to  himself. 

"With  five  more  families  he  sets  out,  with  wife  and 
children;  is  joined,  in  Powell's  Valley,  by  forty  well- 
armed  men  ;  and  advances  prosperously,  until  just  as 
the  last  mountain  pass  is  before  them.  Even  as  they 
are  ascending  the  rugged  way,  the  rear  of  the  party 
is  attacked  by  the  Indians,  and  at  the  first  fire,  Boone's 
oldest  son,  a  promising  youth  of  about  twenty,  falls — 
the  second  victim.  "William  Stewart  was  the  first ;  and 
they  two  are  the  precious  first-fruits  of  that  fearful 
hecatomb  offered  so  cheerfully  by  those  dauntless 
and  uncompromising  men,  the  heroic  forefathers  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley. 

After  the  Indians  are  vanquished  and  driven  from 
their  coverts,  a  halt  is  called  ;  and  though  the  parley 
which  ensues  is  attended  only  by  the  men,  the  women 
and  children  are  represented.  The  company  deter 
mine  to  fall  back  upon  Powell's  Valley.  Here  they 
take  up  a  position,  put  themselves  in  a  defensive  atti 
tude,  and  month  after  month  is  passed  away  in  hunt 
ing  or  dreaming.  Boone  sits  one  day  in  the  porch  of 
his  humble  cabin,  when  down  the  valley  comes,  all 
foaming  with  his  haste,  an  express  messenger  from 


232  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

Lord  Dunmore,  tlie  Governor  of  Virginia,  looking  for 
Daniel  Boone.  This  is  in  1774.  He  is  wanted  by 
Lord  Dunmore  to  go  westward  four  hundred  miles, 
to  the  falls  on  the  Ohio  River,  at  what  is  now  Louis 
ville,  to  bear  tidings  to  a  party  of  surveyors  and  land 
jobbers  there,  that  the  Indians  are  about  to  break  in 
to  hostility ;  and  then  safely  to  convoy  these  men  home 
again.  One  furtive  glance  at  Mrs.  Boone,  who  nods 
assent,  and  his  rifle  is  grasped,  and  Daniel,  with  a 
quiet  and  easy  heart,  starts  alone  upon  his  wild  and 
terrible  journey.  He  reaches  the  Falls,  surprises  the 
surveyors  and  speculators,  and  brings  them  back  in 
safety,  performing  the  journey  of  800  miles  in  six 
weeks ;  and  receives  not  only  the  thanks  of  the  men 
thus  rescued  from  the  clutches  of  the  savages,  but 
also  of  the  lordly  Governor  of  Virginia. 

And  now  it  is  not  needful  for  me  to  stop  to  detail 
the  peculiar  transactions  of  Logan's  War,  or  that 
other  war  of  Lord  Dunmore,  whose  scene  was  the 
western  border  in  1774.  The  Indians,  wronged  and 
outraged  by  the  conduct  of  the  squatter  settlers,  who 
had  grasped  their  land  without  remunerating  them, 
had  again  risen ;  but  after  a  brief  campaign,  were 
overcome,  and  forced  to  yield  their  lands  to  the 
whites  ;  and  Lord  Dunmore  hastened  back  to  uphold 
and  maintain  the  tottering  authority  of  the  British 
Crown  within  the  territories  of  Virginia. 

And  now,  in  1774,  there  has  penetrated  the  interior 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  233 

of  Kentucky  another  lone  hunter,  James  Harrod. 
James  Logan  also  has  come.  Daniel  Boone  is  en 
gaged  as  superintendent  by  one  Col.  Henderson, 
who  purposes  to  be  a  great  land-jobber  in  the  west ; 
a  man  who  taught  himself  to  read  and  write  after  at 
taining  adult  years,  and  who  began  life  in  the  province 
of  Carolina.  He  was  a  man  of  strong  sense,  and  of 
much  practical  skill  and  enterprise.  He  ran  for  and 
obtained  the  lofty  office  of  constable,  next  became  a 
magistrate,  and  afterward  lived  to  reach  the  bench 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  North  Carolina.  He  was 
not  a  cross-grained  ascetic,  not  a  studious  scholar,  but 
a  free,  bold,  dashing,  spirited  fellow,  who  had  made 
his  money  easily,  and  spent  it  yet  more  easily — gene 
rous  and  jovial  to  all,  and  expending  in  good  living 
and  speculation  all  that  he  earned.  At  this  time  he 
was  bankrupt ;  and  casting  his  eye  about  the  world 
to  see  from  what  quarter  he  could  gather  new  sup 
plies,  he  thought  of  western  lands.  He  would  found 
an  empire  in  the  West.  He  makes  a  treaty  with  the 
Cherokees  for  some  land  which  did  not  belong  to 
them  ;  but  that  is  a  small  matter  ;  his  title  is  as  good 
as  that  of  the  British  government  to  American  lands. 
He  buys  the  vast  region  of  country  lying  between  the 
Kanawha  and  Cherokee  rivers.  Here  he  proposes  to 
establish  the  Republic  of  Transylvania ;  and  Boone  is 
sent  out  as  a  pioneer,  to  found  the  first  settlement. 
And  now,  in  conjunction  with  the  settlements  of 


234:  PIONEEKS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

Harrod  and  Logan,  Boonesborougli  is  established,  and 
into  this  new  home  comes  Mrs.  Boone,  with  three 
other  women.  These  were  the  pioneer  women  of  the 
West ;  the  women  who,  with  their  children,  braved 
the  perils  of  the  way,  the  dangers  of  the  forest,  and 
the  more  fearful  wiles  of  the  bloodthirsty,  insidious 
foes  who  lurk  in  every  thicket,  and  ambuscade  every 
ravine. 

As  the  war  of  the  Revolution  broke  out  in  the 
eastern  colonies,  the  aristocratic  ministry  of  England 
contrived  a  grand  coup  d'etat,  to  arm  the  Indian  sa 
vages  against  the  western  settlements ;  that,  having 
destroyed  these,  they  might  sweep  eastward  over  the 
mountains.  The  colonists,  thus  attacked  at  once  in 
front  and  rear,  it  was  imagined  must  quickly  suc 
cumb  ;  and  in  truth,  had  it  not  been  for  these  infant 
settlements  in  the  land  of  the  canebrake — these  three 
little  forts  of  Boonesborougli,  Harrodsburg  and  Lo- 
gansport — manned  altogether  by  not  more  than  one 
hundred  fighting-men,  which  stood,  a  slender  but  im 
pregnable  breakwater,  against  the  wild,  tempestuous 
rush  of  the  forest  tribes  of  the  Northwest — there  is 
reason  for  believing  that  the  onset  of  those  fierce  war 
riors  might  have  turned  the  wavering  balance  of  the 
war,  and  given  the  victory,  in  the  bitter  struggle  of 
the  Re  volution,  to  the  British. 

But  there  is  another  life,  less  known  than  Daniel 
Boone's,  but,  if  possible,  still  more  hardily  adventurous, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  235 

aiid  certainly  more  closely  characteristic  of  the  men 
and  times  of  which  I  am  speaking.  Let  us  follow  it, 
and  see  what  were  the  deeds  and  the  dangers  of  one 
whom  we  may  well  call  the  ideal  man — the  represen 
tative  man  of  ante-Revolutionary  Kentucky.  I  mean 
the  life  of  General  Simon  Kenton,  the  refugee,  hunter, 
spy,  horse-stealer,  Indian-fighter,  soldier  and  officer ; 
and  withal  the  perfect  hero,  true  friend  and  brave 
protector  of  the  scattered,  imperilled  outposts  of  civili 
zation  that  scantily  dotted  the  blood-stained  forests 
of  Kentucky. 

Simon  Kenton  was  born  in  Fauquier  County,  Vir 
ginia,  in  1755.  He  was  of  the  wild  and  insubordinate, 
but  cool,  adventurous  and  daring  Scotch-Irish  blood— 
his  mother  Scotch  and  his  father  Irish.  The  parents 
were  so  poor  that  the  boy's  education,  to  his  lasting 
disadvantage  in  life,  was  quite  neglected.  In  those 
wild  days,  and  in  the  hardy,  healthy  life  of  the  moun 
tains,  marriages  were  early  made.  Kenton  was  only 
about  sixteen  when  he  was  in  love  ;  and  lost  -his  sweet 
heart,  too,  by  the  success  of  a  preferred  rival,  his  own 
most  intimate  friend,  one  Yeach,  who  was,  for  all 
that  appears,  as  young  as  he.  Desperate  with  disap 
pointment,  he  recklessly,  as  the  old  song  says,  "  came 
to  the  wedding  without  any  bidding,"  and  finding  the 
happy  couple  among  their  friends,  seated  on  a  bed, 
he  seems  to  have  quite  lost  his  wits,  and  crazily  and 
rudely  thrust  himself  between  them.  Upon  this, 


236  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE. 

Veach  and  his  brothers  pounced  upon  him,  gave  him 
a  sound  thrashing  and  turned  him  out  of  the  house. 
But  meeting  Veach  alone  in  the  woods,  soon  after 
ward,  Kenton  intimating  that  he  was  still  dissatisfied, 
they  had  a  long  and  severe  pitched  battle,  which 
ended  in  Kenton's  thoroughly  squaring  accounts  by 
beating  his  adversary  to  helplessness,  and  leaving 
him  on  the  ground  for  dead.  Frightened  at  his  work, 
fearing  the  revenge  of  friends  and  the  rude  penalties 
of  border  law,  his  friend  and  his  love  both  lost,  a  sud 
den  mighty  sense  of  loneliness  and  hate  for  civilized 
life  came  upon  him,  and  he  fled  to  the  mountains  and 
the  woods.  Journeying  by  night,  and  hiding  by  day, 
he  pushes  westward,  and  in  April,  1771,  reaches  Cheat 
River ;  works  for  hire  until  he  earns  a  good  rifle ; 
goes  on  to  Fort  Pitt ;  engages  himself  to  hunt  for  the 
garrison ;  and  forms  a  strong  friendship  with  that  Simon 
Girty  who  stands  amidst  the  blood  and  fire  of  the 
fearful  Indian  wars  of  those  times,  a  figure  infernal 
with  murder  and  treason,  a  renegade  among  the 
savages,  and  yet — as  if  to  prove  that  the  worst 
men  are  not  all  bad — more  than  once  proving  him 
self  an  eminently  faithful  and  unflinching  protector 
of  the  very  few  to  whom  he  felt  gratitude  or  affection. 
In  the  autumn  of  1771,  with  two  hunters  named 
Yeager  and  Strader,  the  first  of  whom  had  excited 
his  fancy  with  wonderful  stories  of  the  cane-lands  of 
Kentucky,  he  went  down  the  Ohio  to  find  them.  Not 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  237 

succeeding,  they  returned  to  the  woods  of  the  great 
Kanawha,  and  hunted  for  a  year  and  a  half.  In  the 
spring  of  1773  the  Indians,  then  becoming  excited 
against  the  settlements,  suddenly  fired  upon  the 
three  hunters  while  asleep  in  their  camp,  and  killed 
Yeager ;  Strader  and  Kenton  fled  into  the  woods  naked, 
as  they  lay  in  their  shirts  only,  without  arms  or  food, 
and  after  wandering  six  days,  torn,  bleeding,  and 
famished,  so  footsore  that  their  last  day's  journey 
was  but  six  miles,  and  so  exhausted  that  on  that 
same  day  they  repeatedly  lay  down  to  die,  they 
met  some  hunters,  obtained  food  and  clothes,  and 
returned  to  a  settlement.  Kenton  now  went  to  work 
again,  until  he  had  obtained  another  rifle  and 
hunter's  outfit ;  accompanied  a  party  searching  for 
Capt.  Bullitt,  who  had  gone  down  the  Ohio  on  a  sur 
veying  expedition  ;  guided  it,  when  unsuccessful,  back 
to  Virginia;  volunteered  into  Dunmore's  army  in 
1774:,  doing  good  service  as  a  spy;  and  being  dis 
charged  in  the  fall,  hunted  on  the  Big  Sandy  that 
winter ;  and  the  next  summer  made  a  second  trip 
with  a  hunter  named  Williams,  in  search  of  the 
cane-lands  of  Kentucky,  the  glowing  descriptions 
of  his  dead  friend  Yeager  still  dwelling  in  his 
mind.  He  discovered  the  long-wished-for  cane  by 
accident,  not  far  from  Maysville,  in  Mason  County ; 
cleared  some  land  and  planted  an  acre  of  corn  upon 
one  of  the  richest  and  loveliest  spots  in  Kentucky, 


238  PIONEEKS,    PREACHEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

and  that  season  ate  the  first  corn  raised  by  a  white 
man  in  the  "  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground." 

Kentoii  now  passed  two  or  three  years  in  a  series 
of  hunting  and  fighting  adventures,  almost  mono 
tonous  for  darins;,  and  the  extremes!  and  most  in- 

O? 

cessant  peril  from  the  savages,  who  haunted  every 
covert  of  the  beloved  land  into  which  the  whites 
were  crowding  with  increased  rapidity.  In  the 
spring  of  1777,  while  he  was  residing  at  Harrods- 
burg,  he  was  sent  out  with  a  small  party,  and 
driven  back  by  the  Indians.  Sending  his  men  into 
the  station,  he  went  off  alone  to  warn  the  garrison  of 
Boonesborough ;  delayed  entering  until  dark,  to  avoid 
the  ambushes  which  the  Indians  frequently  laid  to 
shoot  any  persons  coming  or  going ;  and  on  his  en 
trance  found  the  garrison  bringing  home  the  corpses 
of  two  men  who  had  ignorantly  or  carelessly  violated 
this  prudent  rule,  and  would  have  entered  in  day 
light  on  the  path  he  had  followed. 

The  Indians  were  now  becoming  more  and  more 
enraged  at  the  occupation  of  the  beautiful  land  of 
Kentucky,  and  made  incessant  and  furious  incursions 
ito  the  settlements,  closely  besieging  every  station. 
Boonesborough  was  thus  assaulted  three  times. 

Gen.  George  Rogers  Clark,  then  a  major,  was  in 
chief  command  of  the  settlements  ;  and  with  his  con 
currence  six  spies  were  appointed  as  a  scouting  force 
to  watch  the  Indian  frontier,  two  for  each  of  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  239 

three  chief  stations,  Boonesborough,  Harrodsburg, 
and  Logansport.  Of  these  Kenton  was  chosen  from 
Boonesborough,  by  Boone  himself.  These  fearless  and 
wily  woodsmen  for  a  whole  year  gave  timely  notice 
of  every  attack,  going  out  by  twos,  each  party  in 
its  week ;  except  once.  Kenton  and  two  more  were 
about  going  out  of  Boonesborough  to  hunt,  when  two 
men  at  work  outside  the  fort  were  fired  at  by 
Indians,  and  fled  unhurt  toward  tlie  fort.  One 
escaped,  but  a  bold  warrior  tomahawked  the  other 
within  seventy  yards  of  the  fort,  and  was  scalping 
him  when  Kenton  shot  him,  and  with  his  two  com 
panions  sallied  out  upon  the  others  of  the  savage 
party.  Boone  himself  also  quickly  came  out  with 
ten  men  to  support  the  attack.  Kenton,  turning 
round,  saw  an  Indian  aiming  at  Boone's  men,  and 
taking  a  quick  aim,  shot  him.  Boone  now  discovered 
that  his  company  was  cut  off  from  the  fort  by  a 
large  force  of  Indians  who  had  thrown  themselves 
between.  There  was  but  one  resource,  a  prompt 
attack.  "  Right  about !"  he  cried,  "  fire  !  charge  !" 
and  the  little  band  sprang  desperately  at  their  red 
foes,  whose  first  volley  wounded  seven  of  the  four 
teen,  and  breaking  Boone's  leg,  brought  him  down. 
An  Indian  leaped  on  him,  hatchet  in  hand,  but  the 
keen-eyed  Kenton,  cool  as  ice  but  quick  as  light 
ning,  shot  him  through  the  heart,  lifted  the  old 
leader  in  his  arms,  and  carried  him  into  the  fort. 


24:0  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

The  rest  all  got  in  too,  and  after  the  gate  was  shut, 
Boone,  a  silent  man,  and  much  more  chary  of  words 
and  praises  than  a  conqueror  of  crowns,  sent  for 
Kenton  to  give  him  his  meed  of  praise  for  having 
saved  his  own  life  and  killed  three  Indians  without 
getting  hurt  himself;  though  the  urgency  of  the 
case  had  prevented  him  from  taking  the  scalp  of  any 
of  them.  This  was  the  eulogy  of  the  veteran  Indian- 
fighter  : 

"Well,  Sam,  you  have  behaved  yourself  like  a 
man,  to-day  ;  indeed  you  are  a  fine  fellow !" 

Kenton  continued  in  this  little  force  of  spies  until 
June  of  the  next  year,  when  he  accompanied  Gen. 
Clarke's  remarkable  expedition  against  Kaskaskia 
and  Yincennes ;  and  at  his  return,  joined  Boone,  who 
was  about  marching  against  an  Indian  town  on  Point 
Creek,  with  nineteen  men.  He  was  in  advance  of 
the  party  when  he  heard  loud  laughter  in  the  woods, 
and  had  barely  time  to  "  tree,"  when  a  pony 
approached,  carrying  two  Indians,  one  facing  the  tail 
and  the  other  the  head,  and  in  high  spirits.  Instantly 
firing,  Kenton's  bullet  killed  one  and  dangerously 
wound  the  other.  Springing  forth  to  scalp  them, 
about  forty  savages  attacked  him,  and  he  commenced 
dodging  about  among  the  trees,  feeling  exceedingly 
hurried  and  very  unsafe  until  Boone's  force  came  up, 
charged  furiously,  and  drove  the  enemy.  But  having 
learned  that  a  large  war-party  had  gone  out  against 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

his  own  station,  Boone  now  turned  short  round,  and 
hastened  homeward.  Kenton,  and  a  fellow-woods 
man  named  Montgomery,  however,  remained,  lay 
within  rifle  shot  of  the  Indian  town  two  days,  stole 
each  a  good  horse,  and  rode  into  Boonesborough  the 
day  after  the  Indians,  who  had  been  besieging  it,  had 
disappeared. 

A  few  weeks  afterward  they  set  off  to  steal  more 
horses,  taking  one  Clarke  with  them.  They  secured 
seven  near  Chillicothe,  and  got  away ;  the  Indians, 
however,  being  close  behind.  .Reaching  the  Ohio, 
the  three  men  tried  in  vain  to  drive  their  prizes  across 
the  river,  roughened  under  a  high  wind.  After 
delaying,  with  the  most  astounding  recklessness,  for 
almost  a  day,  waiting  for  a  calm,  they  decided  once 
to  leave  four  of  their  beasts  and  ride  home  on  the 
other  three.  "While  trying  to  catch  them  again  (hav 
ing  changed  their  minds),  the  Indians  came  up,  shot 
Montgomery  and  took  Kenton  prisoner — even  then 
only  in  consequence  of  the  very  extremest  folly  on  his 
part,  in  turning  back  to  get  a  shot  at  them.  Clarke 
alone,  who  fled  as  fast  as  possible,  escaped. 

The  Indians,  themselves  most  thoroughgoing  of 
fenders  in  the  same  line,  professed  the  most  violent 
indignation  at  Kenton's  offence,  and  reproached  him 
for  a  "  hoss  steal,"  beat  him  until  they  could  not  beat 
him  longer,  and  then  secured  him  for  the  night,  flat 
on  the  ground,  his  legs  stretched  out  and  tied  tight 

11 


242  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

to  two  saplings,  his  arms  lashed  at  length  to  a  strong 
pole  tied  across  his  breast,  and  a  stout  thong,  so  tight 
as  barely  to  permit  him  to  breathe,  strained  back  to 
a  stake.  He  remained  a  captive  eight  months,  ran 
the  gauntlet  eight  times,  was  once  nearly  killed  by  a 
blow  from  an  axe,  and  was  three  times  tied  to  a  stake 
to  be  burnt,  being  twice  saved  by  the  renegade  Si 
mon  Girty,  his  early  friend — who,  in  this,  showed 
himself  capable  of  the  strongest  attachment  and  the 
most  energetic  and  disinterested  efforts  for  another — 
and  once  by  Logan,  the  Mingo  chief,  who  induced  a 
Canadian  trader  to  buy  him.  His  owner  finally  took 
him  to  Detroit,  where  he  remained,  laboring  for 
small  wages,  until  the  summer  of  1779. 

Being  in  the  flower  of  his  youth — he  was  now 
twenty-four — an  exceedingly  handsome  man,  tall, 
straight  and  graceful,  dignified  and  manly  in  deport 
ment  and  speech,  already  famous  for  his  bravery  and 
skill  in  Indian  warfare,  with  a  soft  and  pleasant  voice, 
and  always  a  favorite  with  females,  he  was  so  fortu 
nate  as  to  excite  a  deep  interest  in  the  bosom  of  a 
Mrs.  Harvey,  wife  of  an  English  trader.  Conceiving 
hopes  of  escape  by  her  means,  he  intrusted  her,  after 
long  doubt,  and  with  great  circumspection,  with  his 
scheme.  After  a  little  hesitation  she  consented  to 
aid  him,  and  procured  and  concealed  for  him  and  the 
two  fellow-prisoners  with  whom  he  proposed  to  es 
cape,  provisions  and  ammunition.  During  a  grand 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  243 

drunken  frolic  of  the  Indians,  she  also  stole  for  them 
three  good  rifles,  and  on  the  3d  June,  1779,  they  set 
out,  and  reached  Louisville  after  thirty-three  days  of 
great  hardship. 

After  resting  a  little  while,  he  went  alone  through 
the  forest  to  visit  Gen,  Clark,  at  Yincennes;  then 
returned  to  Harrodsburg;  and  the  next  spring  accom 
panied  Clark  on  his  expedition  against  the  Indian 
towns,  commanding  a  company  ;  and,  being  now  the 
best  woodsman  and  forest  spy  in  the  western  country, 
he  was  the  principal  guide  to  the  expedition.  During 
two  years  after  the  return  of  these  troops,  Kenton 
was  occupied,  as  usual,  in  spying,  hunting,  or  sur 
veying;  and  in  the  autumn  of  1782,  after  eleven  years 
of  exile  and  remorse  for  supposed  murder,  he  learned 
at  the  same  time  that  his  father  was  yet  alive,  and 
that  Yeach  was  not  dead,  but  living  and  well.  Hith 
erto,  since  his  flight,  he  had  always  been  known  as 
Simon  Butler ;  but  now  he  gladly  resumed  his  own 
name,  and  with  the  weight  of  shame,  banishment  and 
guilt  removed  from  his  mind,  "  felt  like  a  new  man." 

In  this  same  autumn,  Kenton  again  commanded  a 
company  and  acted  as  guide  for  the  army  on  Clark's 
second  expedition  against  the  Indian  towns.  After 
his  return,  he  made  a  clearing  on  one  of  the  many 
tracts  of  valuable  land  of  which  he  had  become  the 
owner,  and  a  year  afterward,  having  raised  a  good 
crop  of  corn,  returned  home,  visiting  his  friends,  who 


24-4  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

had  supposed  him  dead,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Veach, 
who  received  him  without  any  remains  of  rancor  for 
his  ancient  misdoings.  He  took  his  father  with  him 
on  his  return,  but  the  old  man  died  and  was  buried 
on  the  way. 

During  the  subsequent  years,  Kenton,  now  at  the 
head  of  a  thriving  frontier  settlement  arid  a  large  land 
owner,  led  a  company  in  two  more  expeditions  into 
the  Indian  country,  and  in  1T93,  with  a  party,  ambus 
caded  a  troop  of  savages  at  their  crossing-place  on 
the  Ohio,  and,  as  they  came  up  on  their  return,  killed 
six  and  drove  the  rest  away.  This  was  the  last  in 
cursion  they  ever  made  into  Kentucky.  The  whites 
were  now  too  strong  for  them,  and,  discouraged  and 
beaten,  they  confined  themselves  within  the  territories 
north  of  the  Ohio.  All  this  time — that  is,  from  about 
1784  until  the  end  of  the  century — Kenton  was  the 
foremost  man  on  the  Kentucky  frontier.  His  landed 
property  was  large — he  even  gave  away  at  one  time 
one  thousand  acres  of  land,  upon  which  was  founded 
the  town  of  "Washington — and  his  noble  and  kindly 
character,  as  well  as  his  preeminent  skill  and  valor 
as  a  woodsman  and  forest  soldier,  rendered  him  be 
loved  and  esteemed  by  all. 

After  the  expedition  of  Wayne  had  given  a  final 
blow  to  the  power  of  the  Indians,  and  the  infant  com 
monwealth  of  Kentucky  was  beginning  to  stride  for 
ward  toward  wealth  and  power  with  the  long,  rapid 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  245 

steps  of  the  young  giant  States  of  the  West,  a  sad 
series  of  reverses,  disgraceful  to  the  State  for  which 
he  had  fought  so  bravely,  overtook  Kenton.  True  as 
steel,  and  confiding  and  unsuspicious  to  a  degree  al 
most  incredible  and  quite  unknown  except  as  the 
companion  quality  of  such  crystal  honesty  and  child 
like  sincerity  as  his,  and  a  rude  and  unlettered  man 
withal,  what  should  the  heroic  wanderer  of  the  woods 
know  of  the  details  of  legal  formularies  ?  How  could 
he,  spending  thirty  years  in  incessant,  exhausting 
perils  and  combats,  exposed  to  a  thousand  deaths  and 
to  tortures  unutterable,  worse  than  death,  in  the  long 
defence  of  the  infant  settlements  of  Kentucky — how 
could  he  dream  that  any  one  would  rob  him  of  the 
land  he  had  bought  with  his  blood — that  the  com 
monwealth  he  had  done  so  much  to  establish  would 
suffer  him  to  be  beggared  within  her  own  limits  by 
speculating  knaves,  engineering  him  out  of  his  right 
ful  property  by  the  shrewd  villainies  of  laws  mis 
applied,  and  principles  of  justice  perverted  into  in 
struments  of  oppression  ?  But  those  who  rushed  so 
rapidly  into  Kentucky,  after  her  borders  were  freed 
from  the  Indians,  gave  small  heed  to  the  men  who 
had  secured  them  peace.  Kenton,  like  Boone  and 
BO  many  more  of  the  pioneers  of  the  forest,  had  igno- 
rantly  omitted  one  and  another  form,  or  entry,  or 
item  of  description,  in  the  proceedings  taken  to 
secure  the  lands  selected  in  so  much  peril,  and  de- 


24:6  PIONEERS,    PREACHEKS   AND    PEOPLE 

served  by  sucli  inexpressible  hardships  and  toils.  One 
knave  after  another  brought  suit,  founded  on  subse 
quent  and  more  formal  proceedings,  for  clearing 
woodland  or  prairie.  Kenton's  estate  was  wrenched 
piece-meal  from  him ;  his  body  was  taken  for  debt, 
on  covenants  in  the  deeds  to  those  very  lands  which 
he  had  substantially  given  away;  and  he  was  im 
prisoned  for  a  year  on  the  very  spot  where  he  had 
planted  the  first  corn  raised  by  a  white  man  in  the 
north  of  Kentucky,  and  had  afterward  built  his  fron 
tier  station. 

Keduced  almost  to  beggary,  he  moved  out  of  his 
ungrateful  adopted  State  in  1802,  and  settled  at  Ur- 
bana,  now  no  longer  young,  and  with  the  cheerless 
prospect  of  an  old  age  of  penury  among  strangers. 
In  1805,  he  was  chosen  brigadier-general  in  the  Ohio 
militia.  Five  years  afterward,  being  at  a  camp- 
meeting,  under  the  influence  of  the  rude  but  effective 
preaching  of  a  strong,  simple-hearted  man  of  God, 
he  became  convicted  of  sin,  and  would  fain  range 
himself  within  the  church  of  God.  With  a  natural 
reluctance  to  expose  his  spiritual  moods  and  exercises 
to  the  observation  of  others,  he  requested  a  minister 
present  to  accompany  him  into  the  woods  and  pray 
with  him,  saying  at  the  same  time,  "  But  don't  make 
a  noise  about  it !"  The  plain  and  sincere  clergyman 
knelt  down  with  the  old  frontiersman  and  wrestled 
with  God  in  prayer  for  him ;  restraining  his  fervor 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  247 

however,  as  required.  And  now  the  powerful  ap 
peals  and  sympathies  of  the  wise,  though  homely, 
preacher,  and  the  influences  of  Him  that  answereth 
prayer,  worked  mightily  within  the  honest,  simple 
soul  of  the  old  man ;  and  in  a  great  whirlwind  of 
fears  and  terrors,  and  mingled  joy  and  pain,  in  the 
new  feelings  and  perceptions  that  break  in  upon  his 
soul,  he  rises  almost  distracted  and  hastens  back 
toward  the  crowded  meeting,  crying  aloud  in  his 
trouble,  and  borne  far  beyond  any  regard  to  human 
criticism  or  human  presence ;  while  the  quaint  old 
preacher,  with  that  wonderful  mingling  of  profound 
admonition  and  comicality,  so  strangely  characteristic 
of  his  class,  and  so  eminently  effective  upon  their 
peculiar  people,  halloed  after  him,  retorting  his  late 
request, — "  Look  here ;  don't  make  a  noise  about  it !" 
But  Kenton  found  peace  in  believing,  and  became  a 
sincere  member  of  the  Methodist  church. 

In  1813,  when  Shelby  and  the  Kentucky  volun 
teers  so  bravely  marched  to  the  aid  of  Harrison, 
against  the  banded  tribes  of  the  Northwest,  Kenton 
accompanied  the  army,  and  was  present  as  a  privi 
leged  member  of  Gov.  Shelby's  family,  at  the  battle 
of  the  Thames,  his  last  fight.  Returning  home,  he 
lived  on  in  obscure  poverty,  in  his  hut  in  the  woods, 
until  1820,  when  he  removed  to  near  the  head  of 
Mad  River,  in  Logan  County;  within  sight  of 
"Wapatomika,  where,  forty-two  years  before,  the  In- 


24:8  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

dians   had   tied   him   to  the   stake   to  burn  him  to 
death. 

In  this  distant  spot  he  was  still  plagued  with  law 
suits  and  executions  in  Kentucky ;  and  in  1824, 
being  seventy  years  old,  in  rags,  and  on  a  wretched 
horse,  he  journeyed  to  Frankfort,  to  petition  the 
State  of  Kentucky  to  release  from  forfeiture  for  taxes 
some  poor  tracts  of  mountain  land  still  left  to  him. 
Rambling  up  and  down  the  city,  which  had  grown 
up  where  he  had  wandered  in  primeval  woods,  a 
spectacle  to  boys  and  a  stranger  to  men,  he  was 
recognized  by  an  old  friend  or  acquaintance,  well 
clothed  and  hospitably  entertained.  And  soon,  when 
the  news  went  out  that  General  Simon  Kenton  was 
in  the  town,  the  fame  that  such  noble  and  ancient 
men  get  in  their  old  age,  as  if  they  were  dead, 
gathered  many  to  see  the  renowned  hunter  and 
warrior  of  two  generations  back.  They  carried  the 
old  man  to  the  capitol,  placed  him  in  the  speaker's 
chair,  and  introduced  him  to  a  great  multitude  of 
men,  after  our  wronderful  American  fashion  which 
thus  gratifies  the  curiosity  of  a  multitude  under  the 
shallow  pretence  of  doing  homage  to  one.  And  the 
simple-hearted  old  man,  believing  in  every  word  and 
every  smile — and  indeed,  doubtless  no  small  share  of 
that  inexpensive  admiration  was  sincere  enough  as 
far  as  it  went — was  wondrously  lifted  up,  and  was 
afterward  wont  to  say,  that  that  was  the  proudest 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  249 

day  of  his  life.  His  petition  was  granted,  however, 
at  once.  Judge  Burnet  and  Governor  Yance,  of 
Ohio,  then  in  Congress,  a  little  afterward  also  ob 
tained  for  him  a  pension  of  twenty  dollars  a  month, 
which  preserved  him  for  the  rest  of  his  life  from 
extreme  want.  Living  twelve  years  longer,  loved 
and  respected  by  all  who  knew  him,  quiet  and  ob 
scure,  Simon  Kenton  died  in  April,  1836 — in  fullness 
of  years,  for  he  was  eighty-one. 

I  have  ventured  upon  all  this  detail,  and  have 
followed  the  life  of  this  famous  old  pioneer  so  far  be 
yond  the  period  described  by  the  title  of  this  lecture, 
because  that  life  is  such  a  full  and  vivid  picture — 
such  a  complete  epitome  and  type — of  a  life  which 
was  led  by  so  many  of  those  who  dwelt  in  the  cabin 
homes  of  the  wilderness  in  that  wild  and  perilous 
period.  ~Nov  do  my  contracted  limits  suffice  for 
more  than  a  swift  and  shadowy  outline  of  the  story. 
The  multiplied  details  of  Kenton's  life  of  hardships, 
enterprise,  battle,  peril  and  escape,  would  fill  vol 
umes.  And  the  full  history  of  all  the  startling 
dangers,  the  bold  and  wild  exploits,  the  desperate 
escapes,  the  fearful  miseries  of  those  times,  would 
make  a  library  of  strangest  adventure. 


11* 


Lecture    VI. 

THE 

N"     H  O  M  E  S 

OF  THE  WILDERNESS 

DURING  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 


CABIN  HOMES  OP  THE  WILDERNESS, 

DURING  THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION. 

THE  wilderness  hath  a  schooling  all  its  own,  and 
its  tuition  is  not  one  destitute  of  profit  or  compensa 
tion.  I  would  not  undervalue  the  worth  of  litera 
ture,  the  acquisition  of  science,  or  the  training  im 
parted  in  colleges.  Perhaps  few  men  have  paid  a 
higher  price  for  these.  And  yet  there  is  a  majesty,  a 
splendor,  in  a  lonely  forest,  a  boundless  prairie,  in 
the  great  primeval  forms  of  nature  while  they  are 
yet  untainted  and  undesecrated  by  the  play  of  human 
passions  and  human  appetites,  fresh  as  a  virgin 
world  from  the  hand  of  the  Creator,  which  imparts 
to  the  human  soul  a  grandeur  and  nobility  of  charac 
ter  rarely  acquired  in  the  pursuits  of  trade  or  com 
merce,  or  in  the  common,  fixed  and  plodding  occupa 
tions  of  every-day  life.  A  peculiar  muscularity  is 
given  to  the  form,  a  vigor  to  the  step,  a  freshness  to 
the  thought ;  the  will  is  untrammelled,  scarcely  even 
limited  by  the  thought  of  any  impossibility ;  self- 
reliance  is  developed  to  the  very  highest  point ;  an 
independence  of  action  and  of  being  that  leans  only 
on  the  Everlasting  arms  that  are  around  and  nnder- 

253 


254:  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

neath  us  all.  Here,  in  the  spring  or  early  summer, 
when  the  grove  perfumes  the  atmosphere,  and  loads 
it  as  with  fragrance  from  on  high — when  the  prairie 
stretches  its  illimitable  ocean-like  surface  before  the 
eye — when  the  tall  and  rustling  grass  is  interspersed 
and  interwoven  with  flowers  of  a  thousand  hues  and 
a  thousand  aromas — here,  where  the  buffalo  roams  at 
his  own  wild  will,  and  the  deer  stalks  proudly  on, 
clad  in  his  red  summer  garment — where  the  stately 
elk,  with  his  spreading  antlers,  seems  the  monarch  of 
the  forest,  and  where  the  low  growl  of  the  bear  is 
heard  ever  and  anon,  and  at  nightfall  comes  upon  the 
breeze  the  howl  of  a  pack  of  wolves  from  the  far  dis 
tance — here,  where  man  is  surrounded  by  nature  in 
her  simplest,  and  sternest,  and  most  inviting  forms, 
does  he  cultivate  to  the  very  utmost  all  the  vast  self- 
supporting  powers  of  humanity ;  his  gun,  his  own 
sagacity,  an  unerring  and  unblenching  eye,  an  un- 
quivering  muscle,  his  only  supports  this  side  of 
Providence.  If  he  is  wanting  to  himself  in  the  wil 
derness,  he  is  lost  indeed.  . 

Such  a  wilderness  as  this  was  the  boundless  "West 
at  the  commencement  of  our  Revolution.  Here  was 
the  great  normal  school  for  western  character,  and 
admirably  were  the  pupils  that  came  to  receive  the 
instruction  of  this  university  qualified  to  enter  it. 
Men  for  the  most  part  destitute  of  the  culture  of  the 
schools,  unblessed  with  the  tuition  of  art,  or  science, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  255 

or  literature,  accustomed  to  battle  with  the  storm  in 
the  wild  mountains  and  wilder  woods  of  the  western 
skirts  of  the  colonies,  trained  in  the  fierce  sports  of 
the  border,  now  rush  like  a  tide  down  the  western 
slopes  of  the  Alleghariy  Mountains,  to  take  possession 
of  these  illimitable  and  magnificent  regions ;  to  trans 
fer  them  from  the  sway  of  barbarism  and  solitude, 
and  transform  them  into  busy  and  peopled  haunts  of 
living  and  working  men.  These  new-comers  were 
men  strong  of  frame,  compact  and  muscular,  Hercu 
lean  of  stature,  of  dauntless  courage,  of  determina 
tion  incapable  of  discouragement  or  fear,  carrying 
their  lives  in  their  hands,  ready,  if  necessary,  to  crim 
son  the  soil  of  that  new  world  with  their  heart's 
blood.  There  is  hardly  a  more  striking  commentary 
upon,  or  interpretation  of,  the  pristine  radical  ele 
ments  of  Anglo-Saxon  character  in  the  whole  range 
of  the  records  of  our  race,  than  is  to  be  found  in  the 
history  of  its  occupancy  of  Kentucky  and  the  North 
western  Territory. 

These  men  thus  came  to  take  possession  just  at  the 
period  when  the  Revolutionary  struggle  was  begin 
ning  ;  when  the  whole  firmament  of  the  political  sky 
of  America  was  overcast  and  darkened  by  lowering 
and  thunderous  clouds ;  when  the  might  of  the  mo 
ther  country  was  lifting  itself  in  all  its  majesty  to 
chastise  the  rebellious  colonies ;  when  white  men  in 
red  coats,  with  epaulettes  upon  their  shoulders  and 


256  PIONEEKS,    PKEACHEKS   AND   PEOPLE 

commissions  from  the  third  George  in  their  pockets 
— men  who  claimed  and  acknowledged  the  ties  of 
human  kindred  with  the  colonists  upon  this  side  the 
water — were  absolutely  suborning  the  red  savages  of 
the  West  to  deeds  of  unparalleled  cruelty  and  blood- 
thirstiness  ;  when  these  servants  of  the  third  George 
actually  set  a  price  upon  the  scalps  of  their  bre 
thren,  and  not  only  this,  but  upon  the  scalps  of 
women  and  children  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood.  Col. 
Hamilton,  commandant  at  Detroit,  acting,  as  he  af 
firmed,  under  the  authority,  the  advice  and  consent, 
of  the  government  of  England,  absolutely  offered  a 
price  for  the  scalps  of  women  and  children,  torn  from 
their  bleeding  skulls  by  the  ruthless  savages  of  the 
border.  Thenceforth  and  forever,  as  long  as  that 
man's  name  finds  a  place  in  history,  let  him  be  called 
by  the  homely  but  terrible  name  given  him  by  the 
heroic  General  Clark,  who  took  him  prisoner  at  Yin- 
cennes,  "  Hamilton  the  hair-buyer." 

And  now,  when  to  the  dangers  of  the  wild,  dark 
woods,  the  perils  of  those  lurking  savages,  to  whom 
the  perpetration  of  the  most  treacherous  murders, 
and  of  the  most  horrible  cruelties,  is  as  the  breath  of 
their  nostrils,  are  added  the  intensifications  and  re 
inforcements  of  that  gloomy  time;  when  the  wild 
invading  fury  of  the  red  men,  already  savage  and 
devastating  enough,  was  stimulated  by  these  inhuman 
promises  of  gain,  and  by  the  prospect  of  immediate 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  257 

and  powerful  foreign  aid ;  when  the  forces  of  Eng 
land  were  mustering  all  along  the  borders  of  Hie 
lakes ;  when  the  British  Commanders  and  agents  were 
subsidizing,  and  enrolling  and  equipping,  the  half- 
savage  Canadians  of  Montreal  and  Detroit,  and  the 
savages  of  so  many  boundless  forests  from  Niagara 
to  distant  Chicago,  from  the  headwaters  of  the  Sus- 
quehanna  and  the  great  Council  House  of  Onondaga 
to  the  distant  shores  of  Huron  and  Superior ;  when 
this  furious  and  redoubled  tide  of  desolation  and 
slaughter  was  gathering,  to  be  poured  out  upon  these 
infant  and  seemingly  helpless  settlements  of  the  "West, 
were  not  these  pioneers,  who,  daring  to  take  their 
lives  in  their  hands — yea,  and  the  lives  of  their  wives 
and  young  children — and  trusting  in  nothing  besides 
their  God,  except  their  woodcraft  and  their  rifles, 
plunged  far  beyond  the  mountain  boundaries  of 
civilization  into  that  blood-stained  borderland ;  and 
who  maintained  and  protected  the  infant  settlements 
so  long,  so  well,  against  such  overwhelming  and  des 
perate  odds — were  not  these  of  heroic  mold,  of  even 
gigantic  resolution  and  valor,  and  most  justly  entitled 
to  our  admiration  and  our  love  ? 

Such  were  Boone,  Kenton,  Logan,  Harrod,  Callo- 
way,  McGary,  Todd,  and  many  more  than  I  can  even 
name  here  ;  all  the  leading  settlers  of  Kentucky.  In 
the  preceding  lecture  were  presented  sketches  of  one 
or  two  lives  among  them,  in  the  account  of  which  I 


258  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

somewhat  transgressed  the  limits  of  the  period  strictly 
under  consideration,  but  no  further  than  was  neces 
sary  to  complete  the  picture  of  the  men,  which  is  that 
of  the  times.  The  present  lecture  is  in  its  nature 
necessarily  a  continuation  of  that ;  and  in  it  I  shall 
aim  to  afford  such  glimpses  of  some  of  the  more  im 
portant  of  the  varied  movements  and  adventures 
which  took  place  in  the  great  valley  during  the  Revo 
lution,  as  may  enable  the  student  to  gain  a  broad  and 
connected  view  of  the  complexion  and  progress  of 
this  stirring  chapter  in  our  history. 

Perhaps  almost  enough  has  already  been  said  for 
my  purpose,  so  far  as  regards  the  territory  of  Ken 
tucky.  But  it  will  not  be  inappropriate  to  afford  the 
means  of  a  still  fuller  apprehension  of  the  perils 
and  the  bravery  of  the  times,  by  a  brief  account  of 
some  of  its  innumerable  adventures. 

In  the  year  1776  there  were  but  about  one  hun 
dred  fighting  men  in  Kentucky.  Of  these  from  thirty 
to  fifty  were  usually  in  garrison  at  Boonesborough,  or 
absent  on  expeditions  thence. 

Let  me  delay  a  moment  to  describe  this  famous  old 
fort,  whose  site  is  now  occupied  by  an  obscure  and 
decaying  village  of  the  same  name.  Boonesborongh 
was  the  first  fort  built  in  Kentucky,  and  was  estab 
lished  by  Daniel  Boone  in  17Y5.  It  stood  in  a  small 
cleared  space  on  the  bank  of  the  Kentucky  River  ; 
and  occupied  a  parallelogram  about  two  hundred 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  250 

and  sixty  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  one 
angle  resting  on  the  river  bank.  Its  rude  but 
sufficient  fortifications  consisted  of  two  cabins  on  a 
side,  with  a  gate  between,  one  at  each  end,  and  at 
the  corners  block-houses,  which  were  merely  houses 
built  with  larger  logs  than  a  common  cabin,  and 
more  carefully  and  closely  constructed  for  defence. 
These  cabins  and  block-houses  were  connected  by 
high  strong  fences  of  large  pickets  or  timbers  driven 
close  together  into  the  ground.  All  the  outer  walls 
were  loopholed  for  musketry ;  and  this  wooden  fort, 
that  could  not  have  resisted  a  six-pound  field  bat 
tery,  was  to  the  children  of  the  forest  an  impregnable 
stronghold,  proved  by  many  a  desperate  assault 
urged  on  by  the  bitter  sorrow  and  anger  they  felt  at 
each  successive  extension  of  the  white  man's  hold  on 
their  favorite  forests  and  savannas. 

One  of  the  men  employed  on  the  work  was  killed 
a  few  days  after  the  foundations  were  laid.  The  fort 
was  incessantly  beleaguered  for  years,  and  sustained 
three  furious  sieges  by  large  bodies  of  Indians  ;  the 
last  time  in  September,  1778,  under  the  command 
of  British  officers.  The  settlement  had  grown  so 
dense  and  spread  so  far  by  this  time,  that  the  sava 
ges  could  no  longer  penetrate  to  the  walls  of  the 
fort  without  leaving  too  many  enemies  in  their 
rear. 

The  following  incident  well  illustrates  the  dangers 


260  PIONEERS,    PREACHEES    AND   PEOPLE 

to  which  the  inhabitants  of  these  little  fortresses  were 
daily  exposed. 

One  fine  summer  afternoon,  while  the  garrison  was 
not  dreaming  of  danger,  some  of  the  men  lounging 
idly  around  the  gate,  or  under  the  shadow  of  the 
stockade,  were  looking  upon  three  girls,  two  of  them 
daughters  of  Col.  Richard  Galloway,  the  other  of 
Daniel  Boone  ;  the  oldest  fourteen  years  of  age,  the 
youngest  nine  or  ten.  The  three  girls  were  playing 
in  a  light  canoe  upon  the  placid  bosom  of  the  stream, 
dancing,  and  seemingly  in  danger  of  upsetting  the 
light  bark,  but  yet  with  practised  skill  preserving  its 
balance ;  their  sweet  and  merry  peals  of  laughter 
ringing  far,  far  away,  through  the  silent  air.  By  the 
movements  of  the  girls  the  canoe  is  driven  further 
and  further  from  the  southern  bank,  until  they  are 
two-thirds  of  the  way  across  the  stream ;  when  sud 
denly,  by  an  unseen  yet  irresistible  impulse,  it  be 
gins  to  move  directly  toward  the  northern  shore, 
while  the  girls,  surprised  and  wondering,  look  all 
around  to  see  what  may  be  the  cause  of  the  motion. 
Just  as  they  are  gaining  the  edge  of  the  northern 
shore,  the  hand  of  a  savage,  and  then  his  eye,  fierce 
and  glaring  as  that  of  a  panther  about  to  leap  upon 
its  prey,  is  seen  within  the  shade  of  the  bushes  that 
fringe  the  stream,  and  as  the  boat  is  pulled  wdthin 
the  same  dark  covert,  they  see  other  fierce  eyeballs 
gleaming  there,  and  strong  arms  inclose  them.  One 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  261 

shriek  from  the  poor  affrighted  girls,  and  their  months 
are  closed,  and  they  are  hurried  off  in  the  grasp  of 
their  Indian  captors.  That  scream  had  been  heard 
at  the  fort — the  men  had  seen  the  motion  of  the  boat, 
and  quickly  understood  what  had  happened.  ~N-o 
other  canoes  were  in  the  neighborhood,  and  there 
was  every  reason  to  apprehend  that  other  savages 
were  still  lurking  in  the  bushes  to  pick  off  any  men 
who  might  seek  to  pursue.  How  they  finally  suc 
ceeded  in  getting  across,  whether  by  swimming  or 
the  rescue  of  their  canoe,  is  not  known.  Those  in  the 
fort  waited  the  return  of  Boone,  who  was  away  on 
business.  After  several  hours  he  returned ;  but  as  it 
was  near  nightfall,  he  waited  until  morning,  and  by 
daylight  set  out  in  pursuit,  with  seven  men.  They 
had  made  a  march  of  but  a  few  miles  when  they 
reached  a  cane-brake  where  the  savages  had  entered, 
and  had  taken  such  special  pains  to  obliterate  their 
traces  that  to  follow  the  trail  through  the  brake 
would  consume  time  most  critically  precious,  and 
might  probably  allow  the  Indians  to  escape. 

In  this  emergency,  Boone  strikes  on  a  happy  device, 
to  "  circumvent "  the  savages,  to  use  a  favorite  word 
in  western  parlance — by  making  a  detour  around 
the  entire  brake,  so  as  to  strike  the  trail  of  the 
savages  on  the  other  side,  wherever  it  might  be. 
The  plan  is  fortunately  successful,  and  after  travelling 
thirty  miles  with  incredible  speed,  they  find  a  buf- 


262  PIONEERS,    PllEACHEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

falo  path  where  the  trail  is  quite  fresh.  Hastening 
ten  miles  further,  they  come  suddenly  upon  the 
savages  lying  down  or  preparing  a  meal,  and  little 
thinking  of  danger,  supposing  that  they  had  dis- 
tance'd  pursuit;  but  having  the  girls  in  close  and 
careful  custody. 

The  two  parties  saw  each  other  at  the  same  time  ; 
but  the  whites,  firing  a  volley,  charged  so  furiously 
upon  the  Indians,  that  they  fled,  leaving  packs,  am 
munition,  and  weapons,  except  one  empty  shot-gun. 
The  girls  were  uninjured,  except  by  excessive  fright 
and  fatigue ;  and  their  rescuers  wTere  so  rejoiced  at 
their  recovery  that,  without  pursuing  the  Indians 
further,  they  returned  at  once  to  the  fort. 

In  this  same  summer,  one  or  two  other  feats  were 
performed  which  merit  our  notice.  Harrod's,  Logan's 
and  Boone's  stations  were  this  year  attacked  by 
Indians  at  the  same  time ;  large  numbers  of  them 
besieging  each  fort,  and  innumerable  parties  prowl 
ing  through  the  wilderness  for  the  purpose  of  cutting 
off  isolated  settlers.  Harrod's  fort  was  attacked  by 
a  large  body  of  Indians,  who  were  determined  to 
starve  the  garrison  out.  Their  cornfields  were  des 
troyed.  The  body  of  savages  attacking  them  was 
some  five  or  six  hundred  in  number,  while  there 
were  only  about  forty  men  inside  the  stockade.  The 
woods  for  many  miles  were  infested  by  the  Indians, 
so  that  the  crack  of  a  white  man's  gun,  if  heard 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  263 

within  them,  would  have  secured  his  instant  death. 
Nevertheless,  a  lad  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of  age, 
named  James  Kay — several  older  hunters  having 
tried  in  vain  to  supply  the  fort  with  provisions — 
volunteered  his  services.  He  was  a  married  man, 
for  they  married  early  then;  a  son-in-law  of  Col. 
McGary.  Taking  the  only  horse  of  his  father-in-law, 
all  the  others,  of  forty,  having  been  stolen  or  des 
troyed  by  the  Indians — an  old,  worn-down  beast — 
and  leaving  the  stockade  between  midnight  and  day 
light,  taking  his  pathway  in  running  brooks  of  water 
so  as  to  leave  no  trace — thus  the  shrewd  bold  boy 
pursued  his  way  for  many  miles,  till  far  beyond  the 
savages ;  hunted  the  remainder  of  the  day,  slept  a 
portion  of  the  evening,  and  then  came  back  as  he 
had  gone,  his  horse  loaded  with  provisions.  Thus  for 
months,  did  this  gallant  young  Virginian  maintain 
the  fort  by  his  single  rifle. 

One  other  instance.  All  the  stations,  as  I  have 
said,  were  attacked ;  and  Logan's,  containing  fifteen 
men,  shared  the  fate  of  the  others.  Early  in  the 
morning,  a  small  guard  of  men  are  outside  the  gates, 
guarding  a  party  of  women  milking  the  cows.  This 
party  is  saluted  by  a  sudden  hail  of  bullets.  Three  of 
the  men  are  killed ;  the  women  all  succeed  in  mak 
ing  their  escape.  The  entire  party  rush  into  the 
gate  of  the  fort,  and  enter  in  safety ;  but  the  bodies 
of  the  three  slain  men  and  one  poor  wounded  fellow 


264  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

are  still  outside  the  gate.  The  wounded  man,  Harri 
son  by  name,  runs  a  few  steps  and  falls,  in  sight  of 
both  attackers  and  defenders.  Here  he  lies,  and  un 
less  rescued  must  quickly  be  scalped.  The  Indians  re 
frain  from  firing  upon  him  further,  hoping  to  lure 
other  of  his  friends  to  his  help.  The  cries  of  the 
wounded  man  for  aid,  the  frantic  grief  of  his  wife, 
seem  to  fall  upon  deaf  ears.  The  men  say  :  "  There 
are  only  twelve  of  us,  and  not  one  can  be  spared  for 
less  than  a  hundred  red-skins,  at  least.  E"o  man's  life 
can  be  given,  and  it  will  cost  any  man's  life  to  at 
tempt  the  rescue.  But  his  wife,  with  terrible  urgency, 
with  cries  and  implorations  of  heartbreaking  inten 
sity,  solicits  all  in  turn.  Col.  Logan,  the  command 
ant  of  the  station,  cannot  withstand  such  entreaty 
and  helplessness.  He  says,  "Boys,  are  there  none  of 
you  will  go  with  me  ?"  John  Martin  rallies  his  cour 
age,  and  says,  "  I  am  as  ready  to  die  now  as  I  ever 
shall  be  ;  I  will  go  with  you."  The  gates  are  opened, 
and  out  they  rush.  A  storm  of  leaden  hail  greets 
them.  Martin  finds  he  is  not  as  ready  to  die  as  he 
thought,  and  runs  back  again.  But  out  among  the 
rifle  balls  rushes  Logan;  bends  over  the  wounded 
man ;  raises  him  in  his  arms  as  if  he  were  an  infant ; 
and  while  the  bullets  are  flying  all  around  him,  and 
more  than  one  lock  of  his  hair  is  cut  off  as  by  scissors, 
succeeds  in  entering  the  gates  again,  and  delivers  the 
wounded  Harrison  into  the  arms  of  his  rejoicing  wife. 


OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  265 

Still  the  Indians  maintain  the  siege.  There  are 
only  twelve  men  left ;  their  powder  and  ball  are  run 
ning  low ;  a  fresh  supply  must  be  had,  or  all  the  hor 
rors  of  Indian  captivity  must  be  the  consequence. 
None  can  be  had  nearer  than  at  the  settlements  on 
the  Holston  River,  two  hundred  miles  distant.  There 
was  scarcely  a  chance  that  any  messenger  could  pass 
the  Indians,  or  that  if  he  could,  the  fort  could  hold 
out  until  his  return.  Rash  and  desperate  as  the  bold 
woodsmen  were,  they  all  hesitated  to  make  this  fear 
ful  experiment.  Col.  Logan  himself,  with  that  reflec 
tive,  resolute,  deliberate  bravery  which  carries  the 
nobler  sort  of  men,  in  time  of  need,  so  much  further 
than  the  animal  impulses  of  common  hardihood,  then 
volunteers,  and  selecting  two  companions,  creeps  out 
at  night,  and  the  three  bold  men  noiselessly  pass  the 
Indian  lines.  Avoiding  the  usual  road,  he  strikes  off 
into  the  forest,  pushes  at  almost  superhuman  speed 
over  trackless  mountain  and  valley,  reaches  Holston, 
secures  the  ammunition,  puts  it  into  the  hands  of 
his  two  companions,  and  himself  preceding  them, 
that  his  little  garrison  may  the  sooner  receive  the 
good  news  and  strengthen  their  hearts,  returns  again, 
arriving  in  ten  days  after  his  departure  ;  thus  making 
this  trip  of  four  hundred  miles  through  a  rugged 
wilderness  at  the  rate  of  forty  miles  a  day,  on  foot, 
and  with  scarce  aught  to  live  upon.  The  powder  and 

12 


PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

ball  is  successfully  brought  in,  and  the  Indians  are 
driven  away. 

About  this  same  time,  or  just  before  it,  there 
comes  to  Kentucky  a  young  man.  Born  in  1752, 
when  he  enters  Kentucky  in  1775  he  is  twenty-three 
years  of  age — a  fine  soldier-like  fellow,  who  has  been 
in  Lord  Dumnore's  war,  who  commenced  life  as  did 
most  of  the  young  men  in  Virginia  and  thereabouts, 
as  a  surveyor,  this  being  the  surest  highway  to  for 
tune  and  distinction.  He  had  been  in  Logan's  war 
as  a  volunteer  in  the  personal  staff'  of  Lord  .Dunmore, 
and  now  comes  to  Kentucky  to  see  what  manner  of 
persons  are  there,  and  if  the  country  be  fit  to  settle 
in.  Of  stalwart  bearing,  noble  in  person,  winning  in 
manners,  yet  commanding,  this  man's  courage  and 
conduct  through  all  the  subsequent  struggles  of  the 
pioneers  of  the  West  well  entitle  him  to  the  lofty  ap 
pellation  of  the  Washington  of  the  West.  His  name 
is  George  Rogers  Clark,  a  man,  singularly  enough, 
as  yet  without  a  biography ;  and  yet,  excepting 
Washington,  Franklin,  and  a  few  others,  there  is 
not  a  man  in  all  the  annals  of  our  country  wTho  so 
well  deserves  the  tribute  of  the  biographer,  the  pane 
gyric  of  the  historian,  and  the  applause  of  his  coun 
trymen.  He  came  to  Kentucky,  examined  the  con 
dition  of  the  province,  returned  to  Virginia  in  the 
fall,  and  came  back  to  Kentucky  in  early  spring  for 
the  purpose  of  making  it  his  home,  and  taking  part 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  267 

with  his  brothers  of  the  frontier  in  their  arduous  de 
fence  of  their  lands  and  lives.  He  spent  much  of  his 
time,  alone,  hunting  or  wandering  through  the  woods ; 
visiting  all  the  stations ;  and  easily  making  himself 
acquainted  with  the  pioneers,  from  the  smallest  child 
ren  upward.  And  now,  having  acquainted  himself 
with  all  the  features  of  their  life  and  needs,  he  recom 
mends  their  calling  a  convention  for  the  purpose  of 
acquiring  for  themselves  some  political  rights  and 
position.  He  is  appointed  by  this  convention,  with 
one  Gabriel  Jones,  a  representative  or  delegate  to  the 
legislature  of  Virginia ;  and  proceeding  to  Williams- 
burg,  then  the  capital  of  Virginia,  finds  the  legisla 
ture  adjourned.  He  submits  his  credentials  and 
claims  to  Governor  Patrick  Henry,  who  is  lying  ill ; 
urges  upon  the  governor  the  pressing  needs  of  Ken 
tucky  ;  and  claims  the  protection  of  Virginia's  strong 
arm.  Virginia  has  nearly  as  much  as  she  can  do  to 
care  for  herself;  but  the  heart  of  Henry  is  touched  by 
the  representations  of  the  chivalric  young  man,  and 
he  gives  him  a  letter  to  the  Representative  Council 
of  the  State.  These  gentlemen  say  they  can  do  no 
thing  for  him,  because  the  Kentuckians  are  not  yet 
recognized  by  the  legislature  as  citizens.  They,  how 
ever  say,  "  You  shall  have  five  hundred  pounds  of 
gunpowder  for  the  Kentuckians,  as  a  loan  from 
friends,  provided  you  will  enter  into  personal  recog 
nizances  for  the  value  of  the  same."  "  No,"  he  re- 


268  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

plies,  "  I  cannot  accept  it.  It  is  unjust  to  demand 
individual  security  from  me,  when  I  ask  the  powder 
for  the  service  of  the  country."  "  But,"  they  say, 
"  it  cannot  be  had  otherwise."  "  Yery  well,"  he 
says,  "  a  country  that  is  not  worth  defending  is  not 
wrorth  claiming.  Kentucky  will  take  care  of  itself." 
Mr.  Jefferson,  Mr.  Wye,  and  other  members  of  the 
Council,  much  impressed  by  the  lofty,  decided  tone 
of  the  young  man,  at  last  procure  him  an  order  for 
the  powder,  to  be  delivered  to  him  at  Pittsburg. 
Receiving  it  there,  he  embarks  it  in  a  keel-boat,  and, 
with  the  little  guard  of  seven  men,  they  hasten  down 
the  river,  hotly  pursued  by  the  Indians  ;  until,  gain 
ing  the  mouth  of  Limestone  Creek,  the  site  of  Mays- 
ville,  they  ascend  it  a  little  way,  scatter  the  precious 
cargo  in  various  places  of  concealment  in  the  woods, 
set  their  boat  adrift,  hasten  to  Harrod's  station,  and 
returning  with  a  sufficient  escort,  bring  the  ammuni 
tion  in  safety  home,  and  supply  the  scattered  forts 
with  the  means  of  defence  against  the  now  increasing 
wraves  of  Indian  incursion  from  north  of  the  Ohio. 
~Nor  is  the  powder  the  only  good  gift  he  brings. 
Against  the  strenuous  opposition  of  Col.  Campbell 
and  the  great  land  speculator  Col.  Henderson,  he  and 
his  colleague  succeeded  in  inducing  the  Virginia 
legislature  to  erect  Kentucky  into  a  county ;  and  thus 
he  brought  back  to  his  adopted  home  its  first  politi 
cal  organization,  entitling  it  to  representation  in  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  269 

Virginia  Assembly,  and  to  the  benefits  of  a  regular 
judicial  and  military  establishment. 

And  now  is  in  full  activity  that  fearful  torrent  of 
savage  invasion  which  purged  so  furiously  in  upon 
the  scattered  stations  and  settlements  of  Kentucky 
during  the  revolutionary  years.  British  soldiers, 
French  Canadians,  Indian  warriors,  either  in  separate 
or  allied  hosts,  beleaguer  the  rude  log  forts,  haunt 
the  settlements,  waylay  hunter  and  woodsman,  peace 
ful  laborer,  and  innocent  child.  One  after  another, 
the  best  and  bravest  of  the  Kentuckians  are  picked  off 
by  the  lurking  foe ;  blood  flows  like  water  ;  and  this 
infernal  league  of  pretended  Christians  with  savages 
little  less  than  fiends  in  ferocity  and  cruelty,  seems 
likely  to  waste  away  the  sparse  and  feeble  white  set 
tlements,  by  a  slow  and  bloody  but  sure  process  of 
exhaustion.  For  a  year  and  more,  George  Rogers 
Clark  ranges  the  woods,  commonly  alone  in  the 
midst  of  all  the  war  and  all  the  danger,  keenly 
enjoying  a  long  series  of  desperate  adventures,  and 
participating  in  many  hardy  frontier  fights,  of  which 
no  detailed  record  remains.  But  his  profound  and 
penetrating  genius  soon  awoke  to  the  important 
truth — which  the  Virginian  authorities  had  not  ap 
prehended — that  the  true  field  for  opposing  this 
bitter,  cruel  contest,  was  not  so  much  within  the 
devastated  fields  and  haunted  forests  of  bleeding 
Kentucky,  as  afar  within  the  distant  forests  of  the 


270  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

JSTorth ;  at  the  great  Indian  towns  where  the  warriors 
recruited  their  forces,  where  their  squaws  labored 
and  their  children  played ;  and  still  more,  at  the 
British  posts  of  Detroit,  Yincennes  and  Kaskaskia, 
the  unfailing  fountain  of  succor  to  the  tribes ;  where 
arms  and  clothing  and  gay  ornaments  were  sold  by 
British  officers  with  white  skins,  but  hearts  black 
and  vile  with  inhuman,  supersavage  ferocity,  to  the 
red  warriors  for  scalps ;  or  given  freely  away  to  them, 
if  only  they  would  earn  them  by  a  foray  in  the 
American  settlements. 

Clark  resolves  to  attack  these  posts,  profoundly 
convinced  that  thus  he  will  strike  a  fatal  stroke  at 
the  heart  of  the  war;  and  in  1777,  he  already  sends 
two  spies  to  examine  the  ground,  whose  report  of  the 
activity  and  efficiency  of  the  English  garrisons  in 
maintaining  the  savage  war  stimulate  his  resolve 
still  more.  In  December  of  the  same  year,  he  lays 
before  Governor  Henry  the  plan  of  a  bold,  sudden 
and  secret  blow  at  the  enemy,  which  that  officer  and 
his  council  quickly  approve.  With  two  sets  of  in 
structions,  a  public  one  authorizing  him  to  go  and 
defend  Kentucky,  and  a  secret  one  directing  him  to 
organize  a  force  and  take  Kaskaskia,  he  returns, 
raises  four  companies  instead  of  the  authorized  num 
ber  of  seven — for  the  women  will  not  let  so  many 
men  leave  their  homes  undefended — then  sifts  these, 
after  the  fashion  of  Gideon,  until  he  has  a  hundred 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  271 

and  fifty-three  men ;  and  with  a  military  chest  con 
taining  twelve  hundred  pounds  in  depreciated  paper 
money,  and  reinforcing  this  small  amount  by  a 
bounty  of  three  hundred  acres  of  land  for  each  sol 
dier,  he  sets  out.  They  descend  the  Ohio  until 
within  forty  miles  of  its  mouth,  disembark,  sink  their 
boats  to  hide  them,  and  then,  each  man  carrying  his 
baggage  and  stores,  himself  foremost  in  the  march 
and  partaking  of  every  exposure,  they  plunge  into 
the  howling  wilderness  of  marshes  and  forests — a 
tangled,  hopeless  labyrinth  in  which  their  veteran 
guides  even  lose  their  way.  After  a  most  toilsome 
march  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  they  reach 
the  neighborhood  of  the  fort  unperceived,  on  the 
evening  of  July  4th,  1778.  Waiting  until  midnight, 
Clark  makes  a  brief,  stirring  address  to  his  men, 
then  sends  Capt.  Helm  with  a  detachment  across  the 
Kaskaskia  Elver  to  secure  and  guard  the  town,  and 
himself  advances  against  the  fort.  A  lonely  light 
burns  in  a  small  house  outside  the  stockade.  A  cor 
poral's  guard  silently  secures  the  party  within ;  and  a 
Pennsylvanian  among  them,  not  much  a  lover  of 
England,  willingly  volunteers  to  guide  the  assault, 
and  shows  them  an  entrance  through  a  postern  gate. 
Colonel  Clark,  with  his  main  body,  takes  possession 
of  the  various  defences  of  the  fort ;  and  the  fearless 
Simon  Kenton,  with  a  file  of  men,  stepping  softly 
into  the  bedroom  of  the  commander,  Lieutenant 


272  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

Rocheblanc,  governor  of  the  Illinois  country,  quietly 
asleep  by  the  side  of  his  wife,  touches  him.  He 
wakes,  is  informed  that  he  is  a  prisoner,  and  is  forced 
to  make  unconditional  surrender  of  the  fort  and  gar 
rison.  But  Mrs.  Rocheblanc,  a  bold  and  shrewish 
dame,  springs  out  of  bed  in  her  night-gear,  seizes  her 
husband's  papers  and  disposes  them  about  her  person, 
railing  in  good  set  terms  at  the  ungallant  intrusion 
into  a  lady's  bed-chamber.  And  so  delicately  over- 
polite  are  the  rough  sons  of  the  woods  that  they  will 
not  lay  hands  on  a  woman ;  and  thus  the  scold  gains 
time  to  secrete  or  destroy  all  the  documents.  Clark 
now  proceed  to  strike  a  wholesome  fear  of  the 
"  Bostonais," — as  the  French  called  all  the  American 
colonists — into  the  bosoms  of  the  simple  Frenchmen  ; 
and  the  measures  he  takes  for  a  day  or  two  are  well 
calculated  to  maintain  the  horrible  apprehensions 
which  the  British  have  diligently  instilled  into  them 
of  the  ferocious  and  bloodthirsty  brutality  of  the 
"  Long-Knives."  Surrounding  the  town,  he  orders 
the  troops  to  whoop  and  yell  all  night,  as  the  In 
dians  do  ;  sends  runners  throughout  the  town  to  pro 
claim  in  French  that  any  enemy  found  in  the  streets 
will  be  instantly  shot  down ;  that  all  the  inhabit 
ants  must  observe  profound  silence ;  and  that  no 
intercourse  will  be  permitted  between  houses.  Then 
he  sends  a  sergeant's  guard,  who  completely  disarm 
the  town  in  a  couple  of  hours.  When  daylight 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  273 

returns,  having  gained  abundant  intelligence  respect 
ing  the  posts  and  defences  in  the  vicinity,  and  having 
secured  his  prisoners  and  sundry  suspicious  persons, 
and  even  ironed  certain  militia  officers  in  the  British 
service,  he  draws  off  his  troops  behind  a  hill,  pro 
hibits  all  intercourse  between  them  and  any  doubtful 
characters,  and  places  the  town  under  martial  law. 
In  all  things  he  acts  with  an  air  of  stern  promptness 
and  cold  severity,  using  but  few  words,  and  those 
of  a  menacing  character. 

This  threatening  demeanor  soon  becomes  intolera 
bly  fearful  to  the  simple-minded  French.  They 
deputed  six  principal  citizens,  with  the  priest,  Father 
Gibault,  at  their  head,  to  beg  this  terrible  com 
mander  to  mitigate  a  little  the  mysterious  vengeance 
thus  delaying  to  fall.  The  priest  and  his  fellows  are 
admitted  to  the  quarters  of  the  American  general, 
and  find  him  seated  with  his  officers.  The  almost 
gigantic  forms  of  the  dreaded  Bostonais,  their  sordid 
apparel,  all  torn  and  begrimed  from  thicket  and 
swramp,  their  rough,  grim  features  and  wild  fierce 
looks,  appall  the  very  souls  of  the  un warlike  French, 
and  for  a  short  season  they  stand  speechless  in  their 
terror.  At  length  the  priest  finds  voice  to  prefer, 
he  says,  one  small  request.  Evidently  the  townsmen 
were  expecting  a  repetition  of  the  inhuman  Acadian 
tragedy.  He  says,  that  as  his  people  expect  to  be 
torn  from  each  other  probably  forever,  they  beg 

12* 


274  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

leave  to  assembly  once  more  in  their  little  church,  to 
take  leave  of  each  other.  Colonel  Clark  briefly  and 
austerely  grants  the  request,  but  warns  them  against 
attempting  to  leave  the  town.  Something  more  the 
deputies  would  have  said,  but  Clark,  with  a  stern 
gesture,  intimates  that  he  has  no  time  for  further 
conversation,  and  they  retire.  The  sad  congregation 
assembles  at  church,  and  indulges  in  the  melancholy 
pleasure  of  a  last  farewell ;  and  again  the  little  em 
bassy  waits  on  the  conqueror.  They  humbly  thank 
him  for  the  favor  received ;  and  add,  that  although 
they  know  they  must  submit  to  the  fate  of  war,  and 
can  endure  the  loss  of  their  property,  they  would 
pray  not  to  be  separated  from  their  wives  and  chil 
dren,  and  to  be  allowed  some  small  means  of 
support  ;  and  they  say  something  further  of  the 
submissive  ignorance  in  which  they  have  obeyed 
their  commandants ;  of  their  total  unacquaintance 
with  the  causes  of  the  war ;  and  hint  at  good  inclina 
tion  toward  the  United  States. 

Clark  turns  sternly  to  the  priestly  spokesman — 
"Do  yon  take  us  for  savages  and  cannibals?"  he 
asks.  "  We  disdain  to  war  upon  the  innocent  and 
the  helpless.  We  are  defending  ourselves  against 
the  Indians — not  attacking  you.  The  French  king  is 
leagued  with  us  ;  the  victory  will  soon  be  ours  ;  we 
only  desire  to  transfer  your  allegiance  from  Great 
Britain  to  the  United  States  ;  and,  to  prove  my 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  275 

words,  take  home  the  news  that  your  friends  shall  be 
released.  Your  townsmen  may  go  where  they  please, 
safe  in  persons  and  property." 

The  astounded  deputies  would  now  have  apolo 
gized  for  their  mistaken  estimate  of  American  cha 
racter,  but  are  prevented,  and  desired  to  communi 
cate  their  information  to  the  inhabitants.  The  most 
unbounded  joy  instantly  takes  the  place  of  the  terri 
fied  gloom  that  had  darked  the  town  ;  the  bells  ring 
out ;  and  crowding  into  their  well-beloved  church 
again,  the  devout  little  flock  offer  heartfelt  thanks  to 
God  for  this  unexpected  release. 

Clark  now  sent  a  detachment  which  secured 
Cahokia  ;  and  the  inhabitants  of  Yincennes,  a  little 
afterward,  themselves  expelled  the  British  garrison, 
and  declared  themselves  citizens  of  the  United  States 
and  of  the  State  of  Virginia.  After  considerable 
negotiation,  in  which  he  exhibited  great  judgment 
and  still  more  remarkable  knowledge  of  the  Indian 
character,  he  succeeded,  before  the  end  of  September 
of  the  same  year,  in  impressing  all  the  tribes  of  the 
Illinois  and  upper  Mississippi  with  a  great  respect 
for  the  American  character  and  name,  and  in  con 
cluding  treaties  with  all  of  them. 

Before  the  end  of  the  year,  however,  Hamilton 
"  the  hair-buyer,"  governor  at  Detroit,  both  alarmed 
and  ashamed  at  the  brilliant  success  of  Clark,  learn 
ing  that  many  of  the  Yirginians  had  returned  home, 


276  PIONEEKS,    PKEACHEK3    AND    PEOPLE 

mustered  a  force  of  eighty  soldiers,  together  with 
some  Canadian  militia,  and,  making  a  rapid  march 
down  the  "Wabash,  reached  Yincennes,  now  garri 
soned  by  Capt.  Helm  with  one  soldier  and  a  little 
squad  of  volunteer  militia.  Hamilton,  informed  that 
the  garrison  was  feeble,  was  already  advancing  to 
the  attack  at  the  head  of  his  forces,  when  Helm, 
springing  upon  a  bastion,  near  a  six-pounder  trained 
upon  the  British  column,  and  waving  his  lighted 
match  in  the  air,  hailed  them  with  the  stern  com 
mand,  "  Halt !  or  I  will  blow  you  to  atoms !"  A 
little  doubtful  whether  this  bold  defender  would 
not  fulfill  his  threat,  Hamilton  actually  obeyed  the 
order,  beat  a  parley,  and  made  a  formal  demand  for 
the  surrender  of  the  fort ;  to  which  Helm  replied  that 
he  would  capitulate  if  allowed  all  the  honors  of  war, 
but  otherwise  he  would  hold  out  the  fort  as  long  as  a 
man  was  left  alive  to  shoulder  a  rifle.  Hamilton 
consented  to  the  terms,  and  was  violently  disgusted 
when,  the  gates  being  thrown  open,  the  bold  Iven- 
tuckian  marched  out  with  all  possible  formalities, 
and  laid  down  his  arms,  together  with  a  force  of  five 
men,  all  told !  The  lateness  of  the  season  preventing 
him  from  further  movements,  Hamilton  occupied  the 
fort  at  Yincennes,  and  while  he  prepared  to  complete 
his  re-conquest  of  Illinois  in  the  spring,  launched 
war-party  after  war-party  upon  the  frontiers  of  Vir 
ginia  and  Pennsylvania,  thus  keeping  his  Indian 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  277 

allies  employed  until  his  projected  combination  of 
movements  in  the  spring. 

Col.  Clark  was  informed,  in  the  end  of  January, 
1779,  that  Plamilton  had  now  but  eighty  soldiers  at 
Yincennes ;  and  preferring  to  take  him  rather  than  be 
taken  by  him,  prepared  for  a  winter  march  against  Yin 
cennes.  He  set  out  on  the  7th  of  February,  with  one 
hundred  and  thirty  men ;  having  s^nt  a  detachment 
in  an  armed  keel-boat,  to  await  orders  in  the  Wabash 
below  the  mouth  of  White  River,  and  to  permit  no 
passage  upon  that  stream.  For  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  the  little  army  pursued  an  Indian  trail,  through 
dense  forests  and  low  prairies,  soaked  and  flooded 
with  the  long  rains  of  an  uncommonly  wet  season ; 
across  creeks  commonly  fordable  with  care,  but  now 
presenting  lagoons  miles  broad,  knee-deep,  waist- 
deep,  even  arm-pit  deep,  so  that  they  must  carry 
provisions,  arms,  and  ammunition  on  their  heads,  to 
keep  them  dry.  Thus  they  labor  on,  through  forest 
and  low  land,  through  mud  and  mire,  through  flood 
stream  and  falling  rain,  and  in  six  days  have  ad 
vanced  a  hundred  miles,  to  the  crossing  of  the  Little 
Wabash.  Wading  two  feet  deep,  and  often  over 
four,  they  proceed  through  a  similar  dreadful  coun 
try  seventeen  days  more,  and  on  the  18th  encamp  at 
evening  on  Embarrass  River,  within  nine  miles  of 
the  fort,  and  within  hearing  of  the  morning  and 
evening  gun.  After  waiting  two  days,  they  succeed 


278  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

in  capturing  a  boat  and  getting  across  the  river. 
There  however  still  remains  a  broad  and  deep  sheet 
of  water,  upon  reaching  which  the  detachment — 
which  indeed  could  not  possibly  have  sustained  the 
hardships  of  this  extraordinary  march  so  long,  had 
not  the  weather  been  remarkably  mild — showed  evi 
dent  signs  of  alarm  and  despair.  Col.  Clark,  ob 
serving  this,  quietly  put  some  powder  in  his  hand, 
wTet  it  with  water,  blacked  his  face,  raised  an  Indian 
war-whoop,  and  marched  into  the  water.  Electrified 
and  amused,  the  weary  troops  forgot  their  discour 
agement,  plunged  in  after  their  stout-hearted  leader, 
and,  singing  in  chorus,  waded,  most  of  the  time  up 
to  their  arm-pits,  for  miles  and  miles,  until  at  last 
they  reached  the  opposite  highlands,  so  utterly  worn 
out  that  many  of  the  men  fell  as  they  touched  the 
shore,  letting  their  bodies  lie  half  in  the  water,  rather 
than  take  the  two  or  three  additional  steps  to  higher 
ground. 

Having  sent  a  message  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
town,  who  thought  the  expedition  was  from  Ken 
tucky  and  never  dreamed  of  it  coming  from  Illinois, 
Clark,  after  resting  a  day  or  two,  set  out  for  Yin- 
cennes;  marched  up  and  down  among  some  hills, 
showing  different  colors,  that  his  force  might  look 
three  or  four  times  as  large  as  it  was ;  drew  up  his 
men  back  of  the  village,  and  sent  fourteen  riflemen 
to  pepper  the  fort.  So  complete  was  the  surprise, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  279 

that  the  crack  of  the  rifle  was  Hair-buyer  Hamilton's 
first  intimation  of  the  siege.  He  was  at  the  moment 
— it  was  evening — amusing  himself  sociably  with  his 
prisoner  Capt.  Helm,  over  a  game  at  cards  and  a 
glass  of  apple-toddy.  As  the  report  struck  his  ear, 
Helm  sprang  up,  as  if  inspired,  and  cried  out,  in  his 

rough  delight,  "  It's  Clark,  by ,  and  we  shall  all 

be  his  prisoners  !"  The  town  at  once  surrendered. 
The  riflemen  gathered  about  the  fort,  and  shot  down 
every  man  who  showed  himself  over  the  wall.  After 
the  moon  went  down,  Clark  had  a  deep  ditch  dug 
within  ninety  feet  of  the  fort;  and  early  next  day 
the  marksmen,  posting  themselves  in  it  and  thus 
sheltered  from  the  guns  of  the  fort,  blazed  away  by 
dozens  at  every  port-hole,  silencing  two  pieces  of 
cannon  in  fifteen  minutes,  by  shooting  every  man 
who  touched  them,  until  the  terrified  gunners  re 
fused  to  man  the  batteries,  and  the  fort  lay  silent  and 
unresisting  beneath  the  unerring  aim  of  the  hunters. 
After  eighteen  hours'  firing  Clark  summoned  the 
fort,  which  Hamilton,  after  considerable  negotiation, 
surrendered.  Clark  lost  only  one  man  before  the 
walls;  and  during  the  siege,  he  also  surprised  and 
routed  a  party  of  Indians,  just  returned  from  an 
attack  on  Kentucky,  and  took  a  convoy  of  goods  and 
military  supplies  sent  from  Detroit,  worth  about  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  He  sent  Hamilton  and  some  of  his 
officers  to  Yirginia,  where,  along  with  Rocheblanc 


280  PIONEEES,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

from  Kaskaskia,  they  were,  with  extreme  propriety, 
put  in  close  prison  in  irons,  in  retaliation  for  the 
horrid  cruelties  perpetrated  under  their  command  on 
the  frontier,  and  for  their  barbarous  treatment  of  the 
American  prisoners. 

In  1780  Col.  Clark  called  on  Kentucky  for  volun 
teers  for  an  inroad  into  the  Indian  country,  to  reta 
liate  for  Byrd's  expedition.  So  ready  was  the 
response  that  in  a  short  time  he  found  himself  at  the 
head  of  a  noble  force  of  a  thousand  riflemen,  with 
whom,  using  the  speed  and  secrecy  so  characteristic 
of  his  military  movements,  he  surprised  an  Indian 
town  in  Ohio,  slew  seventeen  of  the  savages,  burned 
their  dwellings,  and  destroyed  their  crops.  The 
Indians  were  thus  obliged  to  hunt  for  a  living  all 
summer,  and  could  not  send  their  accustomed  war- 
parties  against  the  settlements. 

With  his  usual  penetrating  breadth  of  view,  Clark 
had  long  considered  a  scheme  for  taking  the  British 
post  at  Detroit ;  and  in  December,  1780,  he  induced 
the  government  of  Virginia  to  cooperate  with  him  in 
his  design.  But  the  invasion  of  Arnold  interrupting 
the  plan,  he  served  under  Steuben  against  him ;  and 
then  resuming  it,  succeeded  so  far  that  two  thousand 
troops  were  to  rendezvous  at  Louisville  for  the  expe 
dition,  in  March,  1781,  and  he  himself  was  commis 
sioned  brigadier-general. 

But  many  unforeseen  difficulties  prevented    the 


OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI. 


army  from  marching  ;  and  the  bold  and  active  Clark, 
who  had  dreamed  so  long  of  extirpating  the  British 
power  in  the  Northwest  by  thus  striking  at  its  centre, 
was  obliged  to  remain  almost  in  idleness,  defending 
the  frontier  against  a  few  scattered  bands  of  Indian 
marauders.  Thus  chafing  in  unwelcome  restraint, 
he  grew  discontented  ;  and  then,  resorting  to  a 
greater  evil  to  cure  the  less,  fell  into  habits  of  drink 
ing  ;  and  as  thus  his  high  spirit  preyed  upon  itself, 
and  his  unhappy  vice  sapped  strength  of  mind  and 
body  together,  his  great  powers  showed  signs  of 
failure.  The  shrewd,  observant  backwoodsman,  who 
then,  as  now,  judged  men  as  men,  and  thought  them 
neither  less  nor  more  for  titles,  prerogatives,  or 
pretensions,  saw  his  lack  of  that  passive  endurance 
which  marks  the  loftiest  grade  of  heroism  ;  saw  that 
he  was  less  a  soldier  and  less  a  man  ;  and  as  mind 
and  body  failed,  his  influence  went  down  too. 

Yet,  in  that  period  of  stupid,  terrified  dejection, 
which  followed  the  great  calamity  of  the  defeat  at 
Blue  Licks  in  1782,  where  the  furious,  reckless  rash 
ness  of  one  man  —  Hugh  McGary  —  cost  Kentucky  a 
confounding  defeat,  and  the  lives  of  sixty  of  her  best 
and  bravest  men,  Gen.  Clark  showed  himself  still  a 
ready  and  active  soldier.  He  proclaimed  that  he 
would  lead  his  regiment  upon  a  retaliatory  expedi 
tion  into  Ohio,  and  called  again  for  volunteers,  -  ho 
gathered  to  his  standard  with  the  old-time  prompti- 


282  PIONEERS,    PREACIIEKS    AND   PEOPLE 

tude.  Again  a  thousand  riflemen  assembled  on  the 
Ohio,  and  marched  upon  the  Indian  towns.  The 
savages  fled  so  fast  before  this  powerful  and  vengeful 
force,  that  not  only  did  they  nowhere  offer  to  resist, 
but  only  twelve  in  all  were  either  killed  or  taken. 
Five  of  their  towns  were  burned,  and  a  vast  quantity 
of  their  provisions,  being  all  their  crops,  were  de 
stroyed  ;  and  so  severe  was  this  lesson  to  the  Indians, 
that  from  that  time  they  dared  no  longer  invade 
Kentucky,  except  in  sly,  small  war-parties. 

Once  more,  in  1Y86,  General  Clark  headed  an 
army  destined  against  the  Indian  towns  on  the 
Wabash  River;  but  the  expedition  was  unsuccessful, 
an-d  returned  without  reaching  its  destination.  After 
this,  Clark's  name  appears  no  more  in  public  transac 
tions,  except  as  temporary  holder  of  a  major-general's 
commission  from  France  in  that  force  which  the 
frantic  visionary  and  revolutionary  democrat,  Genet, 
would  fain  have  raised  in  Kentucky  to  bring  Spanish 
Louisiana  under  the  dominion  of  the  French  repub 
lic.  After  long  suffering  from  infirmities,  his  power 
ful  frame  succumbed  to  a  paralysis  growing  out  of 
rheumatic  disorders.  He  died  at  Locust  Grove, 
near  Louisville,  in  February,  1818,  and  was  buried 
there. 

This  brief  and  unsatisfactory  sketch  is  all  that  my 
space  allows  me  to  devote  to  the  great  qualities  and 
bold  deeds  of  "the  Washington  of  the  West"— 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  283 

unquestionably  the  greatest  military  genius  ever 
produced  by  Virginia,  notwithstanding  that  the  only 
area  for  his  operations  was  the  pathless  wilderness 
beyond  the  mountain;  and  unequalled  among  all  the 
western  pioneers,  not  only  for  military  ability  and 
daring,  speed  and  secrecy,  but  for  practical  states 
manship,  political  foresight,  judgment  in  combining 
plans,  and  energy  in  executing  them  ;  and  a  quality 
still  higher,  which  points  him  out  yet  more  clearly  as 
a  born  ruler  and  a  statesman,  namely,  the  power  of 
controlling  men.  His  genius  was  sufficiently  shown 
in  the  success  with  which  he  led  his  hardy  little 
band,  through  unparalleled  sufferings,  against  Vincen- 
nes,  and  in  the  complete  obedience  and  subordination 
which  he  so  easily  obtained  from  the  rude,  reckless, 
and  utterly  independent  hunters  and  fighters  of  the 
forest ;  but  it  appears  still  more  in  the  influence  and 
admiration  which  he  gained  among  the  wild  savage 
tribes  of  the  Northwest,  who  feared  and  wondered  at 
him  almost  as  at  a  superhuman  being. 

To  give  one  more  touch  to  the  sketch  I  have 
attempted  to  draw,  of  life  in  the  cabin  homes  of  the 
wilderness  during  the  .Revolution — for  no  single  lec 
ture  gives  space  for  more  than  a  sketch — let  me 
briefly  narrate  a  single  achievement,  which  story  has 
been  often  told  before,  but  which  has  not  yet  lost  its 
romantic  freshness ;  a  story  which  nobly  illustrates 
the  generous  daring  and  military  abilities  of  the  sons 


284  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

of  the  western  woods — the  story  of  the  battle  of 
King's  Mountain. 

I  will  first  briefly  sketch  the  deeds  of  the  mountain 
men  before  their  gallant  attack  on  Ferguson.  Col. 
John  Sevier,  chief  militia  officer  of  the  eastern  part 
of  the  State  of  Tennessee — then  Washington  County  in 
North  Carolina — received  in  March,  1780,  a  requisi 
tion  from  General  Rutherford,  of  ISTorth  Carolina,  for 
one  hundred  men  to  be  sent  to  the  aid  of  South 
Carolina.  Colonel  Isaac  Shelby,  of  Sullivan  County, 
also  then  in  North  Carolina,  received  a  similar  requi 
sition.  They  each  raised  two  hundred  mounted  rifle 
men  ;  but  were  fortunately  too  late  to  reach  Ruther 
ford,  and  suffer  in  the  fatal  battle  of  Camden.  They, 
however,  reached  the  camp  of  Colonel  McDowell, 
Rutherford's  second  in  command,  in  July,  and  were 
presently  sent  to  attack  Colonel  Moore,  who  had 
been  raising  the  tories  in  the  western  Carolinas  for 
the  king,  and  now  occupied  a  strong  fort  on  the 
Pacolet  River.  With  six  hundred  men  more  under 
Colonel  Clark  of  Georgia,  the  riflemen,  a  thousand 
in  all,  set  off  at  sunset,  marched  twenty  miles  that 
night,  and  at  dawn  had  surrounded  the  fort,  which, 
after  some  parley,  surrendered. 

Cornwallis,  irritated  at  this  bold  stroke,  detached 
CoL  Patrick  Ferguson  with  one  hundred  picked  men, 
to  gather  and  train  the  tories  of  the  western  counties 
of  South  Carolina,  and  to  take  and  hold  the  strongest 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  285 

positions  there.  Ferguson  was  a  bold,  experienced 
and  successful  soldier,  himself  a  trained  and  skillful 
rifle  shot,  and  a  ready  and  ingenious  man.  He  had 
already  invented,  to  oppose  the  fatal  skill  of  the 
mountain  rifles  so  much  feared  by  regulars  and  low 
land  tories,  a  breech-loading  rifle,  capable  of  being 
discharged  seven  times  in  a  minute.  He  soon  raised 
so  many  loyalists  as  put  him  at  the  head  of  two 
thousand  men,  and  a  small  body  of  horse.  Col. 
McDowell  detached  Shelby  and  Col.  Clark  with  six 
hundred  men  to  watch  his  movements  and  cut  off  his 
foragers.  These  Ferguson  repeatedly  but  vainly 
endeavored  to  surprise.  It  would  have  been  strange 
indeed  if  the  regulars  could  have  surprised  those  sly 
Indian-fighters !  He  did  once,  it  is  true,  come  up 
with  them ;  but  when  he  did  come  up,  the  Ameri 
cans,  who  were  sharply  engaged  with  his  advanced 
guard,  rode  off  with  twenty  prisoners,  two  of  them 
officers,  whom  they  had  just  taken  ;  so  that  Col.  Fer 
guson  only  lost  by  his  haste. 

Col.  McDowell  soon  sent  Shelby  and  Clark,  to 
gether  with  Col.  "Williams  of  South  Carolina  and  six 
hundred  men,  to  surprise  a  party  of  some  five  hun 
dred  tories  at  Musgrove's  Mill  on  the  Ennoree,  about 
forty  miles  distant,  and  in  a  line  directly  beyond  Fer 
guson's  camp.  Again  the  hardy  riders,  setting  out 
at  dusk,  riding  hard  all  night  long,  and  skirting  round 
Ferguson's  camp  four  or  five  miles  off,  met  at  dawn 


286  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

a  strong  patrol,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  tory 
camp.  These  they  drove  in,  and  at  the  same  time 
learned  that  instead  of  five  hundred,  the  enemy  in 
front  numbered  more  than  twice  as  many,  having  just 
received  a  reinforcement  of  six  hundred  regulars. 
Evidently  they  could  neither  attack  double  their 
number,  wearied  as  they  were  by  their  long  night 
ride ;  nor  could  they  for  the  same  reason  safely  re 
treat.  They  therefore  determined  to  hold  their 
ground  and  receive  the  enemy's  attack.  Sending 
forward  an  advanced  party  to  skirmish,  fire  and 
retire  at  discretion,  they  speedily  threw  up  a  slight 
breastwork  of  logs  and  brushwood,  and  lay  down 
behind  it.  The  tory  drums  and  bugles  soon  an 
nounced  their  advance  with  horse  and  foot;  they 
drove  in  the  scattered  advanced  guard,  and  thinking 
that  all  the  Americans  were  retreating,  advanced 
hastily  and  in  disorderly  array,  until  they  were 
greeted,  at  seventy  yards  from  the  breastwork,  with, 
a  destructive  fire.  Undismayed,  they  attacked  with 
spirit,  but  for  a  whole  hour  could  make  no  impres 
sion  upon  the  feeble  but  stoutly  defended  line  of  the 
riflemen.  Just  as  part  of  the  Americans  were  be 
ginning  to  give  way,  Col.  limes,  the  British  com 
mander,  was  wounded.  Every  one  of  his  subalterns 
but  one  was  already  killed  or  wounded  ;  Captain 
Hawsey,  a  notorious  tory  leader,  in  command  of  the 
loyalists,  was  shot ;  the  whole  British  line  wavered, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  287 

and  a  furious  charge  from  the  riflemen  drove  them 
in  disorder  over  the  Ennoree.  The  tories  fled  first, 
and  of  the  regulars,  who  fought  like  brave  men,  more 
than  two  hundred  were  made  prisoners. 

The  indefatigable  mountain  men,  without  waiting 
to  rest,  remounted  their  horses,  which  had  been  re 
posing  during  the  battle,  and  prepared  to  swoop 
down  upon  the  British  fort  at  Ninety-Six,  thirty 
miles  further.  As  they  were  in  the  act  of  starting, 
an  express  came  up  with  a  letter  which  he  gave  to 
Col.  Shelby.  It  was  forwarded  by  McDowell ;  was 
from  Governor  Caswell  of  North  Carolina,  dated  on 
the  battle-field  of  Camden,  bringing  the  news  of  that 
fatal  field  ;  and  advised  McDowell  to  "get  out  of  the 
way,"  for  that  the  enemy  would  now  endeavor  to  cut 
off  in  detail  all  detached  parties  of  Americans.  So 
much  false  and  erroneous  intelligence  was  abroad  in 
those  days  of  treachery  and  peril  that  none  would 
have  known  whether  to  believe  this  sad  letter,  had 
not  Col.  Shelby  been  familiar  with  Gov.  Caswell's 
hand-writing.  Instant  decision  was  necessary,  and 
was  made.  It  was  probable  that  Ferguson  was  now 
informed  of  the  defeat  on  the  Ennoree,  and  would 
instantly  push  to  cut  them  off  from  McDowell.  Nor 
would  their  weary  horses  and  wearier  selves  admit 
of  the  further  advance  on  Ninety-Six,  through 
regions  swarming  with  tories  now  encouraged  by 
the  British  successes  over  Gates  and  Sumpter.  It 


288  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

was  not  safe  to  delay  even  an  hour,  lest  the  energetic 
Ferguson  should  be  upon  them.  The  prisoners  were 
instantly  distributed,  one  to  each  three  horsemen,  to 
take  turns  in  riding  behind  them;  and  the  whole 
force,  facing  westward,  rode  straight  for  the  moun 
tains.  Weary  as  they  were,  they  pushed  on  all  that 
day,  all  the  night,  and  all  the  next  day  until  late  in 
the  evening,  without  a  single  halt.  This  prompt 
retreat  and  desperate  speed  saved  them  ;  for  it  after 
ward  appeared  that  Ferguson's  second  in  command, 
Captain  Dupoister,  had  ridden  hard  after  them  with 
a  strong  force  of  horse,  until  at  the  end  of  the  second 
day  his  men  broke  down  under  the  fatigue  and  heat. 
Shelby  passed  the  mountain ;  Clark  and  "Williams 
carried  the  prisoners  northward.  McDowell's  army 
disbanded,  and  he  and  many  of  his  men  also  crossed 
the  mountain  to  the  hospitable  settlements  of  "Wata- 
uga  and  Nollichucky,  whence  had  come  many  of  the 
bold  riflemen  who  fought  so  well  against  Moore  and 
Innes. 

Thus  disappeared  the  last  remnant  of  an  American 
army  south  of  the  Potomac,  except  the  dispirited  and 
broken  band  that  remained  with  Gates  at  Hills- 
boro'.  Congress  was  penniless  and  bankrupt ;  the 
States  were  little  better ;  the  army  unfed,  unpaid, 
and  miserable  ;  the  whole  country  distressed  and  dis 
couraged  ;  the  British  triumphant,  their  forces  rava 
ging  and  rioting  at  will  up  and  down  the  land,  and 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  289 

their  tory  allies  waging  an  inhuman  and  monstrous 
warfare  upon  their  whig  neighbors  and  countrymen. 
Large  numbers  of  the  Carolina  whigs  sent  their  families 
across  the  mountains  for  safety,  themselves  remain 
ing  in  the  extremest  peril  to  protect  their  property. 
Earl  Cornwallis,  having  occupied  his  time  until  the 
arrival  of  provisions  from  Charleston,  in  putting  into 
operation  a  rigorous  system  of  military  tyranny — not 
hesitating  to  murder  and  banish  the  whigs  and  rob 
them  of  their  property,  to  uphold  his  authority  in 
South  Carolina — advanced  from  Camden  toward 
Virginia,  on  the  18th  of  September,  1780. 

Col.  Ferguson,  at  the  head  of  his  force  of  regulars 
and  loyalists,  had  been  diligently  at  work  among  the 
tories  in  the  western  counties.  He  had  followed  close 
after  Dupoister  in  the  fruitless  chase  of  Shelby  and 
his  mountain  men ;  but  failing  in  this,  had  now 
posted  himself  at  Gilbert  Town,  near  Rutherfordton, 
in  North  Carolina,  not  far  from  the  foot  of  the  moun 
tains.  Here  he  delivered  to  one  Phillips,  a  prisoner 
on  parole,  a  haughty  message  to  the  people  west  of 
the  mountains :  that  if  they  did  not  cease  opposing 
the  British  arms,  he  would  come  across,  lay  the 
country  waste,  and  hang  their  chiefs. 

This  message  Phillips  brought  to  Shelby  in  the  end 
of  August.  That  leader,  mounting  in  haste,  rode 
fifty  miles  and  more  to  his  brother  colonel,  Sevier, 
and  on  consulting,  they  determined  to  raise  as  large 

13 


PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

a  force  of  riflemen  as  possible,  make  a  forced  march 
through  the  mountain,  and  surprise  Ferguson,  or,  at 
least,  weaken  him  and  render  him  unable  to  fulfill 
his  threat. 

The  rendezvous  was  fixed  for  the  twenty-fifth  of 
September,  at  Sycamore  Shoals,  in  Watanga.  Here, 
on  the  appointed  day,  gathered  more  than  a  thousand 
men,  many  of  them  armed  and  equipped  with  money 
obtained  on  the  personal  security  of  Shelby  and 
Sevier ;  all  well  mounted  ;  almost  every  man  carrying 
a  Deckhard  rifle — a  choice  weapon  for  true  aim  and 
long  range,  named  from  its  maker,  a  famous  gun 
smith  of  Lancaster,  in  Pennsylvania.  Nearly  all 
wore  the  hunting-shirt  of  the  backwoods,  leggins  and 
moccasins ;  a  few  appearing  in  their  usual  citizens' 
dress.  Yolunteers  for  the  defence  of  their  hearth 
stones,  they  needed  neither  uniform  nor  esprit  de 
corps,  except  what  common  danger  and  common 
patriotism  inspired. 

Early  next  morning,  after  prayer  by  a  clergyman 
present,  the  riflemen  mounted  and  took  up  the  line 
of  inarch,  following  trading  and  pioneer  paths.  Un 
encumbered  with  the  staff  and  baggage  of  a  regular 
army,  they  moved  so  rapidly  that  on  the  second  day 
they  abandoned  some  cattle  which  they  had  under 
taken  to  drive  along  for  provisions.  Light-armed, 
with  rifle,  shot-pouch,  knife,  tomahawk,  knapsack 
and  blanket,  they  hunted  as  they  went,  for  food,  and 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  291 

drank  the  water  of  tlie  mountain  streams,  until  after 
passing  the  mountains,  when  they  quartered  them 
selves  on  the  tories. 

On  the  day  after  starting,  two  men  were  missing. 
They  had  deserted  to  the  enemy.  To  render  their 
information  useless,  the  army  descended  the  eastern 
slope  of  the  Alleghany  by  remote  and  unfrequented 
paths ;  and  on  reaching  the  foot,  fell  in  with  a  party 
of  several  hundred  -whigs,  waiting  there  in  the  woods 
for  an  opportunity  to  act  against  the  British.  These 
gladly  joined  them.  And  from  all  the  settlements 
small  daily  additions  were  made  to  the  force  of  brave 
men  eager  to  reach  the  foe. 

October  3d  a  council  was  held,  within  eighteen 
miles  of  Ferguson's  post  at  Gilbert  Town.  After 
some  discussion,  a  messenger  was  sent  to  Gates  for  a 
general  officer  to  command  the  force,  and  Colonel 
Campbell,  who  had  led  four  hundred  men  to  the 
rendezvous  at  Watauga,  was  chosen  commander  in 
the  interim.  ISText  day  the  mountain  army  advanced 
to  Gilbert  Town  ;  but  Ferguson  was  gone.  He  had 
heard  of  the  vengeful  storm  gathering  along  the 
western  mountains,  and  after  exhausting  the  lan 
guage  of  entreaty  and  reproach  upon  the  intimidated 
loyalists — who  feared  it  too — in  endeavors  to  assemble 
them  about  his  standard,  he  unwillingly  retreated 
toward  Cornwallis,  sending  him  an  urgent  request 
for  a  reinforcement,  and  marching  in  several  direc- 


292  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

tions  among  loyalist  neighborhoods,  to  keep  out  of 
the  way  of  the  riflemen. 

But  Col.  Campbell  and  his  hardy  riders  understand 
Ferguson's  movements.  A  council  is  held,  and  a 
still  more  rapid  pursuit  resolved  on.  All  that  night 
the  commanders  pick  the  best  men,  horses  and  rifles, 
and  at  dawn  set  out  again  with  nine  hundred  and 
ten  of  the  flower  of  the  army,  leaving  the  rest  to  fol 
low  more  leisurely.  They  hear,  as  they  hasten  along, 
of  one  and  another  large  gathering  of  tories,  but  on 
they  go ;  they  are  striking  for  Ferguson,  and  will 
turn  aside  for  no  meaner  game.  Four  hundred  and 
sixty  more  men,  under  Col.  Hambright  and  Col. 
Williams,  join  them  at  the  Cow  Pens,  where  they 
halt  and  alight  for  an  hour  to  refresh.  Except  this 
delay,  the  indefatigable  riflemen  never  once  stopped 
during  the  last  thirty-six  hours  of  the  pursuit. 

It  is  the  morning  of  the  7th  of  October,  1780.  The 
determined  mountain  men  are  still  sternly  hastening 
upon  the  hourly  freshening  traces  of  the  fleeing  Fer 
guson.  They  ride  on  through  a  rain  so  heavy  that 
they  are  fain  to  keep  the  locks  of  their  rifles  dry  by 
wrapping  them  with  blankets  and  hunting  shirts, 
even  at  the  expense  of  exposing  themselves  to  the 
storm.  The  advanced  guard  comes  up  with  some 
unarmed  men,  who  report  themselves  just  from  Fer 
guson's  camp.  A  brief  halt  is  made,  and  a  close  ex 
amination  discovers  the  facts,  that  Ferguson  is  in 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  293 

camp  three  miles  in  front ;  that  next  day  he  proposes 
to  march  to  Cornwallis's  headquarters ;  and  that  cer 
tain  roads  will  lead  directly  to  his  camp,  which  is 
pitched  on  ground  which  Col.  Williams  declares,  on 
description,  that  he  and  some  of  his  men  know  well. 
Brief  consultation  suffices.  Ferguson  must  never 
reach  the  camp  of  the  haughty  British  earl.  The 
storm  has  cleared  away.  They  resolve  to  march  at 
once,  to  complete  their  work  first,  and  rest  and  re 
fresh  afterward.  The  command  is  at  once  given  to 
put  the  rifles  in  fighting  condition  and  prime  anew  ; 
the  order  of  battle  is  the  well-known  hereditary  ma 
noeuvre  of  the  Indians  and  of  these  veteran  Indian 
fighters :  to  surround  the  enemy  and  attack  him  at 
once  from  all  sides ;  and  remounting,  the  little  army 
is  again  in  motion.  Within  one  mile  of  the  enemy 
an  express  to  Cornwallis  is  taken ;  on  his  person  is 
found  an  urgent  letter  to  the  earl,  stating  Ferguson's 
force — the  number  of  which,  eleven  hundred  and 
twenty-five  men,  is  prudently  concealed  from  the 
Americans  by  their  officers — demanding  instant  re 
inforcements,  and  informing  his  commander-in-chief 
that  he  is  securely  encamped  on  the  top  of  a  hill 
which  he  had  named  King's  Mountain,  in  honor  of 
his  majesty;  and  that  "if  all  the  rebels  out  of  hell 
should  attack  him,  they  could  not  drive  him  from  it." 
All  these  items,  except  his  force,  are  communicated 
to  the  Americans ;  and  spurring  on,  they  advance  at 


294  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

a  gallop  to  a  point  within  sight  of  Ferguson's  strong 
hold.  Arriving  within  view  of  the  field  of  battle,  it 
is  at  once  evident  that  the  right  plan  has  been 
adopted.  Ferguson  and  his  regulars  and  tories  hold 
the  crest  of  the  mountain,  in  a  line  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  long — an  isolated  height  rising  from  the 
general  level  of  the  country,  and  covered  and  crowned 
with  open  woods.  The  final  orders  for  the  battle  are 
given,  while  yet  out  of  rifle-shot :  Campbell,  Shelby, 
Sevier,  McDowell  and  "Winston,  with  their  men,  are 
to  file  to  the  right,  round  the  mountain ;  Hambright 
and  Chronicle  are  to  pass  round  the  other  way  and 
meet  them ;  and  Cleveland  and  Williams  to  fill  the 
remainder  of  the  line  in  front.  When  in  position, 
each  division  is  to  front  face,  raise  the  war-whoop 
and  charge.  They  advance  again,  dismount  about  a 
third  of  a  mile  from  the  hilltop,  tie  their  horses,  and 
the  detachments  separate  for  their  places.  Before 
they  are  quite  ready,  the  enemy,  hitherto  silent  and 
watchful,  open  fire  and  wound  some  of  Shelby's  men. 
Shelby  and  McDowell,  on  this,  face  at  once  toward 
the  foe,  and  return  their  fire  with  effect;  while  Camp 
bell's  column,  coining  up,  charges  fiercely  up  the 
mountain  and  commences  a  fatal  fire  on  the  tories 
who  hold  that  end  of  the  line.  Ferguson,  hearing 
the  firing,  sends  a  force  of  regulars  from  the  other 
end  of  his  line,  and  with  levelled  bayonets  they 
charge  upon  the  advancing  columns  of  McDowell, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  295 

Shelby  and  Sevier.  So  furious  is  their  assault,  that 
those  three  columns  are  driven  headlong  down  the 
hill.  But  at  this  very  moment,  the  four  columns  on 
the  left,  having  pushed  up  the  hill  and  driven  in  the 
pickets,  begin  a  close  and  heavy  fire  upon  the  regu 
lars,  who  have  here  a  slight  breastwork  of  wagons, 
and  are  under  the  command  of  Ferguson  himself. 
Capt.  Dupoister,  who  had  headed  the  charge  on 
Shelby,  is  at  once  recalled,  receiving  as  he  comes  a 
severe  fire  from  Col.  Williams'  column,  and  is  or 
dered  to  charge  again  with  all  the  regulars  upon 
their  new  adversaries.  Again  the  bayonets  are 
levelled,  and  a  desperate  attack  drives  the  riflemen 
to  the  foot  of  the  hill,  Major  Chronicle  being  killed 
in  the  struggle. 

It  is  of  course,  impossible  for  riflemen  to  withstand 
the  shock  of  a  bayonet  charge.  But  the  resolute 
mountain  men,  though  they  retreat,  do  it  only  to  re 
new  the  fight ;  for  the  enemy  dared  not  advance 
many  rods  from  his  vantage-ground  above.  As 
Dupoister  returns  from  his  charge  on  Shelby,  to 
charge  again  on  Cleveland  and  Chronic] e,  the  columns 
of  Shelby,  Campbell  and  McDowell  follow  him  up, 
rallying  readily  to  the  shout  that  the  British  are  re 
treating  ;  and  pushing  up  almost  to  the  British  camp, 
they  exchange  a  deadly  fire  with  the  tory  riflemen  at 
that  end  of  the  height.  Again  the  bayonet  is  tried  ; 
but  already  the  fatal  rifle-bullet  has  thinned  the 


296  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

ranks  of  Ferguson's  scanty  band  of  regulars  until  the 
British  colonel  is  forced  to  have  his  tories'  butcher-* 
knives  stuck  into  the  muzzles  of  their  rifles,  for 
bayonets,  before  he  can  muster  a  line  strong  enough 
for  the  charge.  Down  they  come,  however,  and 
again  the  riflemen  retreat  before  them ;  but  this  time 
not  so  far,  and  after  a  comparatively  feeble  attack, 
Dupoister  retired  within  his  lines. 

And  now  the  American  columns  have  surrounded 
the  mountain,  and  closing  in,  a  fatal  ring  of  fire 
draws  slowly  and  sternly  up  around  the  stubborn 
British  colonel  and  his  bold  troops.  While  a  fierce 
discharge  is  kept  up  at  each  end  of  the  British  posi 
tion,  Sevier's  column  now  makes  a  powerful  attack 
upon  their  centre.  The  British  forces  are  partly 
concentrated  to  repel  these  obstinate  assaults;  and 
while  a  stubborn  contest  is  maintained  here,  Shelby 
and  Campbell,  with  one  bold  charge,  reach  the  crest 
of  the  mountain  at  the  end  held  by  the  tories,  effect 
a  lodgment,  and  slowly  but  surely  drive  their  traitor 
ous  foes  in  toward  the  other  extremity  of  the  line. 

Hotter  and  closer  grows  the  ring  of  the  fire ;  and 
still  the  levelled  bayonets  gleam  on  this  side  and 
on  that,  and  the  light-footed  mountain  men,  vanish 
ing  before  them,  swarm  back  upon  their  footsteps 
the  moment  they  halt,  while  the  Americans  on  the 
opposite  side  seize  the  opportunity  to  advance  again 
in  their  turn.  But  the  charges  of  the  wearied  and 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  297 

fearfully  diminished  band  of  regulars  grow  less 
furious  and  shorter.  And  all  the  time  Shelby  and 
Campbell  are  creeping  along  the  crest  of  the  hill, 
driving  the  tories  before  them,  crowding  them  in 
upon  the  regulars,  the  deadly  mountain  rifles  pick 
ing  them  off  with  fearful  rapidity.  Ferguson,  cool 
and  daring  as  ever,  still  rides  up  and  down  his  line, 
encouraging  his  men,  supporting  the  weakest  places, 
exposing  himself  to  every  danger,  and  carrying  in 
one  hand,  which  has  been  wounded,  a  silver  whistle, 
whose  loud  and  piercing  sound,  heard  over  the  whole 
battle-field,  enables  him  to  signal  instantaneously  to 
all  his  men.  He  sends  Dupoister  with  the  regulars 
to  reinforce  a  weak  position.  It  is  but  one  hundred 
yards  away;  but  before  he  reaches  it,  the  fatal 
Deckhard  rifles  have  left  him  so  few  men  that  their 
aid  is  not  worth  counting. 

Ferguson  now  orders  his  cavalry  to  mount ;  in 
tending  to  head  them,  and  sweep  down  in  a  resistless 
attack  upon  the  Americans.  But  they  cannot  mount, 
or  if  they  do,  they  fall  out  of  their  saddles  as  fast  as 
they  reach  them  ;  for  lifted  on  the  horses,  they  pre 
sent  a  fairer  mark  for  the  rifles. 

And  still  the  ring  of  fire  contracts ;  and  now, 
driven  in  disorder,  far  in  from  the  British  left,  the 
tories,  who  always  blenched  first  when  they  fought 
beside  the  regulars,  dismayed  and  hopeless,  raise  the 
white  flag  of  surrender.  But  Ferguson  gallops  up 
13* 


298  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

and  tears  it  down.  Then  the  regulars  at  the  other 
end  of  the  line  raise  another,  and  the  heroic  com 
mander,  seemingly  the  only  man  left  in  the  host, 
rides  back  again  through  the  tire  and  cuts  it  down 
with  his  sabre.  This  second  time  his  brave  subor 
dinate  Dupoister,  who  had  admonished  him  before 
that  further  resistance  was  hopeless,  and  that  he  ought 
to  surrender,  admonishes  him  again.  But  he  de 
clares  in  the  bitterness  of  his  soul  that  he  "will 
never  surrender  to  such  a  damned  set  of  banditti." 
And  still  riding  desperately  to  and  fro,  he  encourages 
and  strengthens  the  wavering  ranks,  and  alone 
restores  the  battle;  for  whenever  his  voice  or  his 
whistle  is  heard,  the  enemy  rallies  again,  and  fights 
bravely.  But  the  riflemen,  seeing  that  his  resistance 
will  end  only  with  his  life,  after  having  seemingly 
spared  him  for  his  bravery  for  a  long  time,  now 
forced  to  make  an  end  of  the  contest,  aim  their  fatal 
weapons  at  him.  He  falls,  and  dies  at  once. 

Dupoister,  now  left  in  command,  seeing  that  his 
men,  few  in  number,  crowded  in  disorder  together, 
and  falling  rapidly  under  the  dreadful  concentrated 
fire  of  the  Americans,  could  no  longer  hope  for  suc 
cess  or  safety,  almost  immediately  raised  the  white 
flag  again,  and  called  out  for  quarter.  The  fire  of  the 
Americans  ceased,  except  from  a  few  young  men, 
who  either  did  not  know  what  the  flag  meant,  or  sup 
posed  it  would  come  down  again  as  before.  Shelby 


OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI.  299 

called  out  to  the  British  to  throw  down  then*  arms, 
which  they  did ;  when  all  firing  ceased,  and  the  Ame 
ricans,  after  one  hour's  hard  fighting,  were  com 
pletely  victorious. 

Ferguson's  force  was  annihilated  ;  for  two  hundred 
and  twenty-five  were  killed,  nearly  two  hundred  more 
disabled,  and  all  the  rest,  more  than  seven  hundred, 
prisoners.  Not  one  man  escaped.  The  Americans 
had  lost  about  thirty  killed,  and  sixty  wounded.  En 
camping  on  the  battle-field  that  night,  they  rose 
early,  and  at  dawn — a  peaceful  Sabbath  dawn — went 
forth  and  buried  their  dead.  Then  they  burned  the 
wagons  of  the  enemy,  and  prepared  to  return  to  the 
mountains,  with  their  seven  hundred  prisoners,  fifteen 
hundred  stands  of  arms,  many  horses,  and  a  great 
mass  of  supplies  and  booty.  In  the  midst  of  a  tory 
neighborhood,  near  Cornwallis,  and  with  more  pri 
soners  than  they  could  saiely  spare  guards  to  watch, 
the  mountaineers  were  seriously  embarrassed  with 
their  success-.  Taking  the  flints  out  of  the  captured 
arms,  however,  they  made  the  strongest  of  the  pri 
soners  carry  them  ;  marched  all  day  at  a  "  present," 
keeping  close  watch  on  the  prisoners,  and  at  sundown 
met  the  remainder  of  their  own  force,  with  whom 
they  kept  on  westward  until  the  fourteenth.  Then, 
halting  near  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  they  held  a 
court-martial  upon  sundry  of  the  tory  prisoners,  atro 
cious  violators  of  the  laws  of  their  country  and  of  hu- 


300  PIONEEKS,    PKEACHKKS    AND   PEOPLE 

manity ;  condemned  thirty  of  them  to  the  death 
which  they  had  a  thousand  times  richly  deserved ; 
but  hung  only  nine  of  the  worst,  respiting  the  re 
mainder.  Justice  thus  executed,  Sevier  and  his  force 
crossed  the  mountains,  and  put  themselve  in  readi 
ness  to  defend  their  homes,  if  necessary ;  while  Camp 
bell,  Shelby  and  Cleveland  guarded  their  prisoners 
northward  to  secure  captivity. 

This  bol  eland  splendid  achievement  was  the  turn  of 
the  tide  in  the  affairs  of  the  war.  Without  it,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  what  limits  could  have  been  set  to 
Cornwallis's  victorious  progress  northward,  unop 
posed  as  he  was  by  any  embodied  force,  and  daily 
reinforced  in  camp  by  tory  levies,  while  other  gangs 
of  those  ignoble  banditti,  starting  up  everywhere, 
were  daily  riveting  the  chains  of  the  hateful  British 
authority  over  all  the  South  behind  them. 

But  the  destruction  of  Ferguson  and  his  host  ex 
ploded  in  the  midst  of  Earl  Cornwallis's  plans  like  a 
thunderbolt  in  a  powder  magazine.  It  scattered 
them  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven  ;  the  few  fragments 
left  for  reconstruction  formed  only  a  frustrated  and 
strengthless  plan ;  and  the  pause  of  astonished  terror 
that  followed  afforded  time  for  the  dispirited  Ameri 
cans  to  rally  again,  and  enter  upon  that  series  of  ope 
rations  so  gloriously  consummated  at  Yorktown. 

When  Cornwallis  heard  the  news,  magnified  by  its 
journey  into  the  startling  story  that  the  victorious 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  301 

host  of  riflemen,  three  thousand  strong,  were  in  full 
march  toward  his  camp,  he  instantly  gave  up,  for 
the  time,  his  northward  march,  struck  his  tents, 
marched  back  toward  the  south  all  night  in  the 
greatest  confusion,  crossed  the  Catawba,  and  never 
stopped  until  he  reached  "Winnsboro',  a  hundred 
miles  away,  where  he  remained,  quiet  and  frightened, 
for  three  months.  During  this  respite,  the  North 
Carolina  whigs  rallied  and  gathered  in  considerable 
force.  General  Smallwood,  with  his  veteran  and 
celebrated  Maryland  corps,  and  Morgan's  riflemen, 
strengthened  them.  Gates  soon  joined  them,  with 
the  sad  remains  of  the  Southern  army.  From  Hills- 
boro',  a  thousand  Virginians  came  down.  General 
Nathaniel  Greene  assumed  the  command  of  this  new 
force  in  December,  and  America  was  again  in  a  con 
dition  at  least  to  face  the  foe,  and  maintain,  with  re 
newed  courage,  the  contest  which  seemed  to  have 
been  decided  upon  the  terrible  field  of  Camden.  To 
those  hardy  sons  of  the  wilderness,  the  mountain  men 
of  eastern  Tennessee  and  western  Virginia,  in  all 
probability,  is  due  the  glory  and  the  praise  of  having 
decided  the  question  of  the  acquirement  of  our  na 
tional  independence. 


Lecture    VII. 

SKETCHES  OF 

CHARACTER  AND  ADVENTURE 

IN  THE  WEST, 
TO  THE  FAILURE   OF  BURR'S   EXPEDITION,  1806. 


SKETCHES  OF 

CHARACTER    AND    ADVENTURE 
IN  THE  WEST, 

TO  THE  FAILURE  OF  BURR'S  EXPEDITION,  1806. 

THE  close  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle  left  our 
ancestors  weak  and  well-nigh  disabled  by  their  long, 
unequal  contest,  and  torn  by  internal  dissensions  and 
broils.  Threatened  by  external  force,  the  govern 
ment  impoverished  to  the  last  degree  and  as  credit- 
less  as  a  notorious  spendthrift,  the  currency  depre 
ciated  as  far  as  depreciation  was  possible,  all  things 
seemed  to  portend  dismemberment  and  anarchy  ;  a 
state  far  worse  than  that  in  which  the  commence 
ment  of  the  struggle  found  them.  But  the  bound 
less  recuperative  energies  peculiar  to  our  people, 
came  to  their  rescue,  and  out  of  the  wild  chaos  of 
inharmonious  elements,  there  arose  in  course  of  time 
the  magnificent  fabric  of  civic  order,  symmetry,  and 
splendor,  beneath  whose  protection  we  and  our 
children  sit. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  depreciation  of  the  cur 
rency.  In  Virginia,  at  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 

305 


306       PIONEERS,  "PEE ACHEES  AND  PEOPLE 

tion,  a  bowl  of  rum  punch  cost  five  hundred  dol 
lars,  in  the  ordinary  currency  of  the  time ;  in  New 
England,  a  mug  of  cider  was  once  bought  for  one 
hundred  dollars.  "  Part  of  an  old  shirt "  was  valued, 
in  an  inventory  of  an  estate,  at  three  pounds.  Gen. 
Green  Clay,  an  eminent  surveyor  and  citizen  of  the 
State — or  rather,  at  that  time,  the  District — of  Ken 
tucky,  riding  a  spirited  horse  from  the  west  side  of 
the  mountains  to  the  east,  disposed  of  him  to  one  of 
the  French  officers  attached  to  the  army  which  aided 
Washington  in  the  taking  of  Cornwallis,  for  the 
moderate  sum  of  twenty-seven  thousand  dollars, 
which  he  invested  in  wild  western  lands ;  and  these, 
forty  years  ago,  were  worth  half  a  million  of  dollars. 

The  bond  which  held  the  colonies  together  was  of  the 
slightest  imaginable  description.  The  old  Congress 
had  limited  powers,  and  was  afraid  to  use  what  it 
had  ;  rarely  daring  to  assume  any  responsibility. 

What  was  to  be  done  ?  How  should  the  treasury  be 
replenished  ?  How  should  the  credit  of  the  country 
be  established  ?  Virginia,  always  the  readiest  of  the 
sisters  of  the  confederacy  to  do  what  in  her  lay  to 
speed  any  good  work,  assigned  to  the  general  govern 
ment  that  magnificent  domain  which,  belonged  to  her 
in  virtue  of  conquest  ;  which  the  perseverance  and 
heroism  of  her  sons,  inspired  and  guided  by  the  indo 
mitable  energy  of  George  Rogers  Clark,  had  wrested 
from  the  power  of  Britain  and  made  her  own  property. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  307 

All  that  vast  and  splendid  country,  afterward 
known  as  the  Northwestern  Territory,  was  thus  given 
fieely  to  the  general  government,  in  order  that  by 
the  sale  of  its  lands  to  emigrants  and  settlers  at  such 
a  moderate  price  as  their  resources  would  justify,  the 
coffers  of  the  Eepublic  might  be  filled.  Massachusetts 
had  a  partial  claim  to  what  is  now  the  State  of  Ohio ; 
but  always  desiring  to  look  before  she  leaped,  always 
keeping  a  sharp  eye  on  the  main  chance,  she  waited 
to  see  what  should  be  the  end  of  the  matter ;  so  that 
it  was  not  until  1786,  two  years  after  Virginia  had 
given  to  the  United  States  what  formed  afterward 
the  States  of  Illinois,  Indiana,  Michigan,  and  the 
greater  portion  of  Ohio,  that  Massachusetts  surren 
dered  her  claim  to  the  western  country,  by  cession  to 
the  general  government.  Last  of  all,  old  Connecti 
cut,  who  held  with  a  still  more  unrelaxing  grasp  to 
her  reserved  territory  in  the  northeastern  corner  of 
Ohio,  at  length  became  convinced  of  the  propriety 
and  justice  of  ceding  her  claim,  and  did  so. 

Thus,  the  whole  of  that  wide  domain  passed  into 
possession  of  the  federal  government.  At  first,  how 
ever,  it  was  of  comparatively  slight  use  to  the  people. 
The  Indians  held  most  of  it ;  and  although  hostilities 
upon  their  part  were  suspended'  for  a  short  time 
immediately  after  the  close  of  the  Eevolution,  yet,  as 
their  late  ally,  the  government  of  Great  Britain,  made 
no  terms  for  them  in  the  treaty  of  1783,  but  left  them  to 


PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

care  for  themselves,  and  as  the  United  States  claimed 
that  territory  by  right  of  conquest,  without  stipula 
tion  or  provision  for  compensation  to  them,  granting 
them  only  slight  reserves  for  residence  and  hunting- 
grounds,  their  ire  was  again  awakened,  and  their  ven 
geance  was  ready  to  descend  upon  the  frontiers. 

Further,  Spain  and  France  had  aided  our  country 
in  the  struggle  against  our  mother;  but  after  that 
struggle  was  ended,  and  we  had  achieved  our  inde 
pendence,  they  asked  to  be  remembered  and  compen 
sated  for  their  expenditure  in  our  behalf.  Both  were 
in  quest  of  territory.  Both  wrere  jealous  of  the 
predicted  power  and  greatness  of  the  new  nation. 
Both  desired,  in  common  with  Great  Britain,  to 
restrict  our  fathers  within  certain  predetermined 
limits.  France  and  England  joining,  desired  to 
make  the  Ohio  River  our  northern  boundary.  Spain, 
on  another  side,  desired  to  keep  them  east  of  the 
Mississippi  and  north  of  the  Yazoo,  that  she  might 
remain  in  possession  of  all  the  district  lying  south 
and  west  of  those  rivers,  for  her  own  occupancy. 
One  difficulty  after  another  was  thrown  in  the  way 
of  our  national  diplomacy.  The  old  confederated 
Congress  found  itself  incapable  of  the  task  it  had 
shouldered ;  unequal  to  the  difficulties  of  the  emer 
gency.  It  is  not  my  province  to  detail  to  you  the 
history  of  the  convention  for  the  formation  of  the 
Constitution ;  the  theory  or  powers  of  the  new  gov- 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  309 

eminent;  nor  the  policy  of  the  cabinet  of  George 
"Washington,  with  its  two  poles  of  dissimilar  charac 
ter  and  creed,  by  way  of  equipoise  —  Thomas 
Jefferson  representing  the  Republican  or  Democratic, 
and  Alexander  Hamilton  the  Federal  principle.  The 
great  diplomatist  of  this  administration  was  John 
Jay — for  intellect,  patriotism,  clear-sighted  subtlety, 
nobility  of  purpose  and  force  of  character,  and  lofty 
purity  of  morals,  one  of  the  proudest  names  which 
our  annals  can  boast.  Jay,  at  this  time,  charged 
with  the  duty  of  negotiating  treaties  with  England 
and  Spain,  found  himself  in  a  most  perplexing  situa 
tion.  Spain  claimed  the  right  of  ownership  to  the 
Mississippi  River;  denied  the  right  of  the  western 
people  to  navigate  that  river,  and  was  about  to  close 
all  the  ports  upon  the  Gulf  against  our  commerce, 
and  thus  cut  oif  the  people  west  of  the  mountains 
from  all  opportunity  for  foreign  exchanges.  Enor 
mous  crops  of  all  kinds  grew  up  in  their  fertile  and 
exuberant  fields,  but  there  was  no  market  in  which 
they  could  sell.  They  had  pressing  needs,  but  there 
was  no  market  where  they  could  buy.  Their  only 
opportunities  for  obtaining  the  most  necessary  mer 
chandise  were  by  mule  tracks  and  pathways  across 
the  Alleghany  Mountains,  from  Baltimore  and  Fre 
derick.  Long  trains  of  these  animals,  with  pack- 
saddles  laden  with  salt,  iron,  and  lead,  and  whatever 
else  was  in  demand  among  the  emigrants  and  settlers 


310  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

of  the  West,  were  daily  travelling  the  mountain 
roads,  at  all  seasons  of  the  year. 

But  this  meagre  system  of  exchange  offered  no 
prospect  either  of  speedy  wealth  to  those  engaged  in 
it,  or  of  present  or  future  adequacy  to  the  wants  of 
the  western  settlements,  now  beginning  to  increase  so 
vigorously. 

Already  the  feeling  had  become  definite  and  uni 
versal  among  the  western  settlers,  that  the  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  must  be  secured ;  when, 
in  1784,  an  assembly  of  the  people  of  Kentucky  was 
summoned  at  Danville,  by  Col.  Logan,  one  of  their 
oldest  and  ablest  pioneers,  to  consult  upon  measures 
for  opposing  an  invasion  by  the  southern  Indians, 
which  he  had  learned  was  in  contemplation.  This 
rumor  proved  to  be  incorrect ;  but  the  assembly, 
which  contained  a  large  number  of  influential  and 
intelligent  citizens,  who  had  come  together  under  the 
impression  that  it  was  intended  to  wage  an  energetic 
warfare  upon  the  northwestern  Indians,  took  occasion 
to  examine  the  existing  laws  applicable  to  the  raising 
of  a  military  force ;  when,  to  the  common  surprise 
and  chagrin,  it  plainly  appeared  that  since  the  end 
of  the  war,  there  was  no  existing  authority  to  call 
out  men  for  any  expedition  against  Indians  or  any 
other  enemy,  nor  even  to  assemble  volunteers  or 
militia  for  the  defence  of  their  own  homes  and 
hearths.  Open  on  three  sides  to  the  incursions  of  a 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  311 

ferocious  and  active  enemy,  their  hands  were  effectu 
ally  tied,  and  no  defence  left  them  except  such  purely 
voluntary  aid  as  might  be  given  without  the  counte 
nance  of  laws.  Such  a  state  of  things  was  unendura 
ble  ;  and  even  in  time  of  safety,  the  growing  and 
high-spirited  District  of  Kentucky,  now  composed 
of  three  large  counties,  could  not  but  be  restive 
under  the  tardy  and  difficult  administration  of  a 
government  acting  at  Richmond,  and  separated  from 
the  western  settlements  by  so  many  hundred  miles 
of  mountain  and  forest.  The  assembly  was  unani 
mously  and  earnestly  of  opinion  that  Kentucky  should 
have  a  government  independent  of  Yirginia;  but 
having  no  legal  authority,  recommended  a  conven 
tion  of  delegates,  one  to  be  chosen  from  each  militia 
company,  to  assemble  in  December  of  the  same 
year,  to  consider  the  question  of  separation  from 
Yirginia. 

This  convention  assembled,  and  was  the  first  of  a 
series  of  nine,  successively  called  by  the  Kentuck- 
ians — unused  to  the  management  of  representative 
machinery — or  required  by  the  Assembly  of  Yirginia 
or  by  Congress,  in  the  course  of  the  long  series  of 
legislation  and  negotiation  that  lasted  for  seven 
tedious  and  wearisome  years,  before  the  final  act 
of  1791  constituted  Kentucky  a  State.  During  all 
this  long  period,  the  feeble  and  disorganized  com 
munity  beyond  the  mountains  was  vexed  by  a  seem- 


312  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEK3    AND    PEOPLE 

ingly  interminable  series  of  conventions ;  by  uncer 
tainty  and  fear  respecting  its  fate ;  by  incessant  and 
cruel  hostilities  from  Indians  and  English ;  by  party 
spirit  of  the  violent  and  reckless  type  which  so  com 
monly  curses  newly-settled  States ;  and  by  the  artful 
and  secret  intrigues  of  agents  and  partisans  of  the 
court  of  Spain. 

In  1784,  while  all  these  disturbing  influences  were 
actively  at  work,  there  crossed  the  mountains,  from 
Maryland,  a  distinguished  citizen  and  soldier  of  that 
State,  who  had  played  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 
Kevolution,  General  James  "Wilkinson ;  a  man  long 
afterward  intimately  connected  with  all  the  princi 
pal  political  movements  in  the  West.  He  had  been 
aid-de-camp  to  General  Gates ;  had  figured,  with 
considerable  credit,  in  many  of  the  struggles  of  the 
Revolution;  and,  at  the  conclusion,  finding  his  for 
tunes  impaired  and  his  finances  in  so  complicated  a 
condition  that,  with  his  present  means,  there  were 
no  hopes  of  remedy,  he  directed  a  sagacious  eye  to 
the  growing  "West ;  and  deciding  promptly  upon  a 
removal,  came  with  a  stock  of  goods  to  what  is  now 
Lexington,  in  Kentucky,  for  the  purpose  of  establish 
ing  himself  in  trade.  His  fine  personal  appearance, 
winning  manners,  agreeable  and  dignified  address — 
his  tact  and  ingenuity,  knowledge  of  and  adaptation  to 
human  nature,  and  subtlety  of  speech — his  powers  of 
insinuation,  and  plausibility — his  eloquence,  whether 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  313 

spoken  or  written,  equally  adapted  to  the  popular 
level — all  these  endowments  placed  him  at  once  in 
the  highest  position  in  the  country.  He  was  elected 
a  member  of  several  of  the  organizing  conventions ; 
became  a  prominent  political  character  at  once ;  and 
when  the  question  of  the  navigation  of  the  Missis 
sippi  absorbed  a  large  portion  of  the  attention  of  the 
Kentuckians,  this  bold  man  embarked  upon  a  haz 
ardous  adventure.  He  procured  a  flat-boat,  loaded 
it  with  tobacco,  descended  the  Ohio,  and  then  the 
Mississippi,  and  depositing  his  cargo  in  New  Orleans, 
opened  negotiations  with  the  Spanish  government. 
The  secret  portion  of  his  correspondence  with  Baron 
de  Carondelet,  the  Spanish  governor  at  ISTew  Orleans, 
has  never  been  made  public ;  but  General  Wilkinson 
returned  to  Kentucky  and  informed  the  inhabitants 
that  he  had  made  certain  overtures  to  Carondelet; 
that  he  had  acquired  for  himself,  by  judicious  nego 
tiation,  the  right  of  deposit  for  all  his  merchandise, 
be  it  of  what  sort  soever,  in  the  government  ware 
houses  of  the  capital  of  Louisiana ;  and  that  he  had 
secured  a  permission  to  trade  there  for  a  given  num 
ber  of  years.  He  began  at  once  to  purchase  all  the 
products  of  Kentucky  for  the  purpose  of  prosecuting 
this  trade.  He  hinted  furthermore  that  Carondelet 
had  informed  him,  under  proper  instructions  from  the 
Spanish  government,  that  if  the  people  of  Kentucky, 
would  sever  their  relations  with  the  older  States  and 

14 


314  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

erect  themselves  into  an  independent  territory  or 
State,  Spain  would  treat  or  negotiate  with  them, 
making  such  treaties  as  should  be  most  desirable  and 
agreeable  to  them,  relative  to  outlets  for  trade  or 
otherwise. 

This  was  the  first  hint  the  people  of  Kentucky 
received  in  regard  to  this  matter.  Wilkinson  for 
some  time  continued  his  trade  with  New  Orleans, 
and  began  to  lay  the  foundation  of  an  immense  for 
tune.  Carondelet,  not  satisfied  with  his  negotiations 
with  Wilkinson,  sent  one  Power  to  approach  some  of 
the  other  distinguished  citizens  of  the  District — for  a 
district  it  still  remained.  This  man  came  to  Benjamin 
Sebastian,  a  prominent  lawyer,  and  afterward  a  dis 
tinguished  judge,  and  laid  before  him  certain  schemes 
for  the  furtherance  of  the  plan  which  had  been 
already  submitted  to  Wilkinson  ;  and  which  insured 
to  the  people  of  Kentucky  the  free  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  the  right  of  deposit  at  New  Orleans 
for  any  number  of  years  that  they  might  desire.  At 
the  same  time,  Mr.  Guardoqui,  the  Spanish  minister 
accredited  to  our  government,  then  in  New  York, 
entered  into  treaty  stipulations,  with  a  similar  object, 
and  in  a  secret  manner,  with  Mr.  Brown,  territorial 
delegate  to  Congress  from  Kentucky  and  subse 
quently  its  representative  when  admitted  as  a  State. 

And  while  the  uneasy  excitement  about  the  secret 
plans  of  Spain  is  spreading  in  Kentucky,  and  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  315 

more  open  propositions  of  Guardoqui  are  almost  pub 
lished  by  Brown — while  the  people  are  also  vexed 
and  harassed  with  their  interminable  series  of  con 
ventions  to  no  purpose — the  object  of  the  Spanish 
court  is  nearly  gained  by  Mr.  Jay.  This  negotiator 
lays  before  the  confederate  Congress  a  proposal,  not 
to  give  up  the  principle  of  the  right  to  navigate 
the  Mississippi,  but  to  cede  the  exercise  of  it  for 
twenty  years,  in  consideration  of  certain  advantages 
offered  in  return.  The  seven  northeastern  States 
earnestly  favor  the  scheme  ;  but  nine  States  being 
required  to  adopt  it,  it  fails.  "While  it  is  in  agitation, 
however,  the  wrath  of  the  Kentuckians  becomes  so 
hot  against  the  New  Englanders,  for  this  selfish  dis 
regard  of  the  interests  of  the  West,  that  they  become 
almost  ready  to  sever  all  connection  with  the  Union, 
and  to  set  up  an  independent  sovereignty  within 
the  great  valley. 

Had  this  project  prevailed  in  Congress,  it  is  ex 
ceedingly  probable  that  the  after-progress  of  this 
country  would  have  been  much  hampered  and  entan 
gled  by  the  indefinite  complications  which  would 
have  sprung  from  the  establishment  of  a  rival 
commonwealth  beyond  the  mountains.  As  it  was, 
the  bitter  feelings  which  the  scheme  engendered 
toward  New  England  remained  strong  for  many 
years,  and  the  name  of  Jay  was  for  a  long  time 
almost  infamous  in  the  popular  mind  of  Kentucky, 


316  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

as  having  been  connected  with  what  they  appre 
hended  to  be  a  treacherous  and  unscrupulously  selfish 
scheme  to  sacrifice  them  and  their  future  for  the 
advantage  of  a  distant  section  of  the  country.  Yet 
Jay  had  never  for  a  moment  contemplated  the  re 
signation  of  the  right  to  navigate  the  Mississippi. 
Indeed  he  would  have  been  the  very  last  man  in  the 
nation  to  yield  a  single  jot  of  principle  or  of  justice, 
to  inflict  a  wrong,  or  to  distribute  benefits  unfairly. 
His  sole  error  was  the  universal  one  of  under-esti 
mating  the  prospective  growth  of  the  common 
wealths  of  the  Valley.  So  far  was  he  from  any 
improper  pliancy  011  this  point,  that  he  had  stead 
fastly  supported  the  right  to  the  river  navigation, 
both  during  the  war  and  after  it,  in  defiance  of  all 
the  tortuosities  and  intrigues  which  European  diplo 
macy  could  bring  to  bear  upon  him,  and  of  the  large 
offers  of  pecuniary  assistance  and  threats  of  alterna 
tive  desertion  which  were  constantly  presented  by 
the  court  of  Spain  as  inducements  toward  the  grant 
ing  of  what  we  sought.  But  the  masses  of  the 
people,  however  sure  their  "  sober  second  thought," 
are  little  competent  to  judge  of  the  conduct  of  a 
negotiator  in  a  foreign  land,  in  difficult  times,  who 
must  look  at  the  needs  and  rights,  not  of  one  section 
of  his  country,  but  of  all ;  and  though  Jay,  now  a 
historical  character,  has  long  justly  held  a  lofty  and 
honored  place  among  our  Revolutionary  heroes,  in 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  317 

the  hearts  of  Kentuckians,  as  well  as  all  others  of  his 
countrymen,  his  spotless  name  was  long  a  by-word 
and  a  hissing  among  them. 

So  guarded  were  the  words  and  actions  of  the 
advocates  of  an  independent  government  in  Ken 
tucky,  that  even  now  it  cannot  be  demonstratively 
proved  that  they  had  actually  agreed  with  Spain  to 
establish  it.  Still  it  is  known  that  one  or  two  of 
them  received  Spanish  pensions ;  and  there  can  be 
no  reasonable  doubt  that  Wilkinson,  Brown,  Sebas 
tian,  Innis,  and  a  few  more,  did  earnestly  desire  such 
an  independent  government,  probably  from  the 
double  desire  for  political  power  and  position  for 
themselves,  and  whatever  pecuniary  gains  they  could 
extort  from  the  Spanish  government.  It  is  certain 
that  they  pushed  their  plan  to  the  furthest  point  pos 
sible,  without  instant  ruin  to  their  own  prospects  in 
Kentucky. 

I  proceed  with  the  story  of  the  Spanish  intrigues, 
though  out  of  strict  chronological  order.  Caron- 
delet's  negotiation  with  Judge  Sebastian  through 
Thomas  Power,  was  brought  to  an  end  in  1795,  by 
the  treaty  of  October  of  that  year,  with  Spain,  which 
secured  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi.  Two  years 
afterward  Power  came  again  to  Kentucky  with  a 
plan  from  Carondelet  for  forming  an  independent 
government  west  of  the  mountains.  The  public 
mind  was  to  be  prepared  by  newspaper  articles  ;  the 


318  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

scheme  aided  by  Spain  with  men  and  arms.  This 
proposition  was  submitted  to  Sebastian,  to  Innis,  to 
Nicholas,  and  to  Wilkinson,  and  was  decidedly  dis 
couraged  by  all ;  not  as  treasonable  or  unpatriotic, 
but  merely  as  impracticable  under  the  circumstances. 
Wilkinson,  however,  intimated  that  if  he  should  be 
appointed  governor  of  Natchez,  for  Spain,  he  might 
be  able  to  proceed  in  some  plan  of  the  kind.  Power 
returned  to  New  Orleans  with  this  answer ;  and  thus 
ended,  as  far  as  is  now  known,  any  actual  attempts 
by  Spain  to  dismember  our  Union.  Sebastian,  how 
ever,  received  a  Spanish  pension  of  two  thousand 
dollars  a  year,  until  1806. 

The  story  of  the  West  after  the  Kevolution  would 
not  be  complete  without  some  reference  to  the  med 
dlesome  and  impertinent  endeavors  of  revolutionary 
France  to  reap  in  her  turn  some  advantage  among 
the  hardy  and  excitable  population  of  the  new  trans- 
Alleghanian  State.  There  was  no  part  of  the  United 
States  where  the  French  nation  received  more  love  or 
sympathy  than  in  Kentucky.  Her  generous  aid  in  the 
dark  days  of  our  own  contest  with  England  were 
gratefully  remembered ;  and  her  magnificent  attitude 
of  successful  defiance  to  the  banded  powers  of 
Europe  who  sought  to  beat  down  her  newly-estab 
lished  republican  government,  was  enthusiastically 
admired.  That  crazy  democat  Genet,  the  French 
ambassador,  deluded  by  the  triumphant  progress 


OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  319 

which  he  made  through  the  country,  believing  that 
he  could  wield  the  moral  and  physical  power  of  the 
United  States  in  aid  of  France  in  the  contest  be 
tween  herself  and  England  and  Spain,  sent  four  emis 
saries  into  Kentucky,  to  raise  two  thousand  men, 
and  appoint  a  general,  descend  the  Ohio  and  Missis 
sippi  in  boats,  attack  the  Spaniards  in  Louisiana,  and 
bring  them  under  French  authority.  General  George 
Rogers  Clark,  the  hero  of  Kaskaskia  and  Yincennes, 
now  considerably  fallen  in  social  and  political  posi 
tion,  was  so  imprudent  as  to  consent  to  receive  the 
supreme  command  of  this  chimerical  army,  with  the 
long-tailed  title  of  "  Major  General  in  the  armies  of 
France,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  French 
Revolutionary  Legions  on  the  Mississippi."  The 
work  of  enlistment  went  vigorously  forward.  Demo 
cratic  clubs,  humble  imitations  of  the  Jacobin  clubs 
of  France,  were  established  over  Kentucky,  and 
grew  rampant  with  denunciations  of  the  federal  gov 
ernment  ;  of  the  Spanish  treachery  in  closing  the 
Mississippi ;  of  the  vile  tricks  which  Washington  and 
Jay  were  contriving  to  unite  this  country  and  Eng 
land  againt  France ;  of  the  tyrannical  excise  act. 
The  new  State  was  in  a  perfect  ferment  of  disloyal 
and  fanatic  excitement.  There  was  much  corres 
pondence  amongst  the  Federal  and  State  officers 
respecting  these  military  schemes.  President  Wash 
ington,  Governor  Shelby,  and  General  Wayne  wrote 


320  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

backward  and  forward.  Depeau,  one  of  the  French 
agents,  wrote  an  extraordinary  letter  to  Gov.  Shelby, 
in  very  French  English,  intended  as  a  courteous 
announcement  of  his  business,  and  an  invitation  to 
join  in  it.  Shelby  was  even  so  much  swayed  from 
his  usual  straight-forward  common-sense  as  to  write 
to  Gen.  Wayne,  in  substance,  that  he  had  great 
doubts  whether  he  could  consistently  endeavor  to 
stop  any  Kentuckian  or  Kentuckians  who  should 
merely  set  out  to  leave  the  State  with  arms  and  pro 
visions.  "Washington,  who  could  not  see  the  force  of 
such  reasoning,  laconically  ordered  "Wayne  to  garri 
son  Fort  Massac,  on  the  Ohio,  and  to  do  what  else 
might  be  necessary  to  stop  this  muster  of  fools.  The 
Democrats,  on  this,  grew  more  excited  than  ever. 
They  called  a  convention  and  passed  some  resolutions 
full  of  bitter  enmity  to  the  general  government ;  and 
this  convention  took  measures  to  call  another,  which 
squinted  hard  in  the  old  direction  of  separation  from 
the  Union.  But  just  in  the  nick  of  time  the  news 
came  that  the  French  Kepublic  had  recalled  Genet, 
and  disapproved  and  disavowed  his  acts.  This  pricked 
the  bubble.  Lachaise  and  Depeau,  the  chief  French 
agents,  instantly  lost  their  authority,  and  disap 
peared.  Gen.  Clark  lost  his  long  title  and  his  mili 
tary  command.  The  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  in 
tended  army  lost  the  generous  grants  which  their 
French  friends  had  lavishly  promised  them,  of  lands 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  321 

which  they  did  not  own.  And  the  public  mind, 
losing  so  many  and  promising  subjects  for  excite 
ment,  grew  at  once  quite  calm. 

While  Carondelet's  intrigues  were  still  proceed 
ing,  and  while  the  democratic  and  federal  quarrel 
was  yet  hot  and  fierce  in  Kentucky,  the  unpopular 
administration  of  Washington  was  succeeded  by  the 
actually  hateful  one  of  Adams.  In  the  new  govern 
ment  the  people  of  Kentucky  had  little  confidence, 
and  entertained  for  it  still  less  respect ;  for  they  were 
convinced  that  it  was  unfriendly  to  them.  Never 
theless,  Kentucky  had  been  admitted  as  a  State  ;  and 
a  treaty  had  been  formed  with  Spain,  by  which  the 
right  of  navigating  the  Mississippi  for  three  years  had 
been  obtained,  as  well  as  the  right  to  deposit  mer 
chandise  in  New  Orleans  for  purposes  of  commerce. 
But  before  this  period  expired,  the  Spanish  governor 
of  New  Orleans  shut  the  port,  and  refused  the  per 
mission  agreed  upon  by  the  treaty.  For  even  after 
the  organization  of  the  new  State,  the  scheme  of 
wooing  her  from  her  attachment  to  the  confederacy 
was  still  contemplated.  Then  came  the  alien  and 
sedition  laws,  ill-judged  and  oppressive  enactments, 
which  awakened  tumult  and  confusion  throughout 
the  country,  especially  in  Kentucky  and  Virginia. 
The  former,  irritated  by  their  enactment,  took  the 
first  step  in  that  system  of  nullification,  afterward  so 
strangely  put  forward  again  by  South  Carolina.  By 

14* 


322  PIONEERS,    PEEACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

a  series  of  resolutions  passed  by  her  legislature,  in 
1798-9,  she  denied  the  right  of  the  general  govern 
ment  to  interfere  in  matters  of  private  State  rights 
and  authority.  ISTo  State  of  all  the  country  was  so 
addicted  to  the  principles  of  Jefferson,  perhaps;  it 
might  be  said,  no  people  ever  worshipped  a  dema 
gogue  in  the  form  of  a  politician  as  did  the  Kentuck- 
ians  Jefferson.  And  accordingly,  they  repudiated 
the  doctrine  of  Adams  and  his  congress,  and  passed  a 
set  of  resolutions,  drawn  up  by  Jefferson  with  his 
own  hand  for  the  purpose.  Thus  did  Kentucky  de 
file  its  statute  book  with  a  direful  blot ;  a  stain  which 
it  has  taken  long  years  of  fealty  to  the  Union,  to  the 
federal  authority,  the  united  central  power  of  the 
Republic,  to  wipe  out.  And  no  lapse  of  time  wTill 
remove  the  spot  from  her  history.  The  written  word 
remaineth.  The  resolution  in  the  book  will  forever 
tell  of  the  folly  that  placed  it  there.  Let  us  hope 
that  the  lesson  will  not  be  lost  upon  her  sister  States. 

Thus  goes  on  the  muddy,  crooked  stream  of  poli 
tics  ;  Spain  intriguing  still ;  England  dispatching  her 
emissaries  from  the  North  with  the  hope  of  harassing 
the  Kentucky  people — and  they  yet  retaining,  though 
not  without  doubt  and  difficulty,  integrity  toward  the 
confederacy.  It  is  time  for  me  now  to  pass  from  this 
political  part  of  my  subject,  and  to  return  and  trace 
downward  another  line  of  history. 

As  I  have  said,  the  Indians  suspended  their  hostili- 


OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  323 

ties  for  a  brief  period  after  the  close  of  the  Revolu 
tionary  struggle.  Finding  that  England  had  made 
no  provision  for  them  in  her  treaty  with  the  colonies, 
they  resumed  hostilities  after  a  more  fearful  sort  than 
had  ever  been  seen  before.  By  the  treaty  between 
England  and  the  United  States,  the  former  was  to 
relinquish  all  fortresses  within  our  territory  after  the 
boundary  line  had  been  run — the  line  which  is  now 
the  northern  boundary  of  the  Union.  But  there  was 
also  another  stipulation :  that  English  merchants  were 
to  be  allowed  to  collect  their  dues  and  debts  in  this 
country  precisely  as  before  the  Revolution.  Vir 
ginia,  indignant  at  the  carrying  away  of  slaves  by 
the  British  fleet,  "  nullified"  this  provision  of  the 
treaty,  and  prohibited  by  law  the  collection  of  British 
debts.  England  seized  upon  this  pretext  to  retain 
her  hold  of  the  fortresses  upon  the  northern  border. 
So  that  her  troops  were  yet  stationed  in  certain  forts 
in  Michigan,  northern  Ohio,  and  Indiana  ;  and  from 
these  centres  of  operation  and  influence,  the  Indians 
were  constantly  supplied  with  arms  and  provisions, 
sometimes  with  advice  and  encouragement ;  and  were 
continually  making  descents  upon  the  border  settle 
ments,  hindering  and  almost  absolutely  preventing 
the  settlement  of  the  Northwestern  Territory. 

Thus  the  people  of  Kentucky  must  be  still  on  the 
war-path ;  their  cabins  and  block-houses  burned ;  their 
wives  and  children  tomahawked  and  butchered  as  be- 


324:  PIONEEKS     PBEACHEKS    AND 


fore.  Let  us  pause  a  moment  to  recount  some  of  the 
incidents  of  this  period,  which  may  be  said  to  reach 
from  about  1784  to  the  battle  of  the  Fallen  Timber, 
in  1794. 

A  man  named  Davis  walks  out  one  morning,  and 
has  only  got  a  few  steps  from  the  door,  when  he  turns 
round  and  finds  an  Indian  between  him  and  the 
threshold.  Thinking  to  elude  the  savage,  he  runs 
round  the  house  so  as  to  enter  before  him  ;  but  on  re 
turning  finds  that  the  cabin  is  filled  with  Indians, 
and  he  himself  is  hotly  pursued  by  the  one  whom  he 
had  first  seen.  He  rushes  to  a  cornfield  and  suc 
ceeds  in  concealing  himself.  Hearing  no  noise,  and 
no  shouts  or  screams  from  the  cabin,  and  knowing  that 
without  arms  he  can  do  nothing  for  the  rescue  of  his 
family,  he  runs  at  the  top  of  his  speed  for  five  miles 
to  a  block-house  occupied  by  his  brother  and  some 
other  settlers.  These  quickly  sally  out,  return  to  Da- 
vis's  house,  find  that  no  blood  has  been  spilled  ;  and 
after  great  difficulty  —  for  the  Indians  have  taken  every 
means  to  obliterate  their  traces  —  succeed  in  getting 
upon  the  trail.  Following  this  with  all  speed,  after 
a  number  of  hours  they  succeed  in  overtaking  the 
savages,  who  have  still  the  wife  and  children  of  Da 
vis  with  them.  One  of  the  children,  a  boy  of  eleven, 
is  instantly  thrown  to  the  ground,  as  the  Indians  see 
his  father  and  friends  approaching,  and  the  hair  and 
skin  from  the  top  of  his  head  skillfully  removed  by 


OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI.  325 

that  surgical  process  called  scalping.  The  rest  of  the 
Indians,  frightened  at  the  crack  of  the  rifles,  take  to 
their  heels,  leaving  the  remainder  of  the  family  in  a 
sink  hole  by  the  side  of  the  trail.  The  boy,  spring- 
up,  his  head  streaming  with  blood,  cries  out  at  the  top 
of  his  voice  :  "  Father !  after  them !  Cuss  those  red 
skins — they've  got  my  har  /"  This  is  an  illustration 
of  the  spirit  of  the  boys  of  that  period. 

There  was  a  redoubtable  hunter  and  Indian-fighter 
of  the  name  of  Hart,  whose  quickness  and  keenness 
in  the  warfare  of  the  woods  had  obtained  him  the 
name  of  Sharp-Eye  from  his  Indian  enemies.  This 
man  had  performed  a  number  of  feats  which  had 
won  him  the  unenviable  distinction  of  the  special 
hatred  of  these  red  people.  Making  a  descent  upon 
liis  neighborhood,  secreting  themselves  over  night, 
they  attack  his  family  as  they  are  sitting  at  their 
breakfast  one  morning.  An  Indian  levels  his  rifle 
and  shoots  Hart  dead.  The  son,  a  boy  of  twelve 
years  of  age,  grasps  his  father's  rifle  and  sends  a 
bullet  through  the  Indian's  heart.  The  other  savages 
rush  at  the  door  in  a  body.  The  brave  boy  hurls  a 
tomahawk  and  splits  the  skull  of  a  second ;  drives 
his  scalping-knife  to  the  hilt  in  the  heart  of  a  third, 
and  then — the  party  is  a  large  one,  and  the  contest  is 
too  unequal — they  carry  him  off  with  his  mother, 
rather  proud  of  the  achievements  of  the  lad.  A 
sister  was  killed  on  the  journey ;  but  the  boy  and  his 


326  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

mother,  after  being  captives  for  some  time,  were  ran 
somed,  and  returned  home. 

The  spirit  of  the  women  of  the  country  was  of  the 
same  indomitable  sort.  The  house  of  a  settler  was 
attacked  just  before  the  break  of  day.  Hearing  a 
noise  outside,  he  incautiously  opened  the  door  and 
stepped  out  on  the  threshold,  when  he  received  the 
contents  of  six  or  seven  Indian  rifles.  Falling  across 
the  entry,  mortally  wounded,  his  wife  hastily  pulled 
the  body  in,  and  closed  the  door,  just  in  season  to 
prevent  the  Indians  from  entering.  They  immedi 
ately,  with  clubs  and  tomahawTks,  commenced  to  cut 
away  the  door.  There  were  no  firearms  in  the  house, 
the  settler  having  been  so  reckless  as  to  be  without 
them.  They  succeeded  in  breaking  down  one  of  the 
puncheons  of  the  door  and  wrere  pressing  in.  The 
bold  wife  had  nothing  but  an  axe ;  but  as  one  savage 
after  another  crawled  through,  she  hewed  him  down 
with  the  axe,  and  drew  him  inside ;  until  four  were 
dispatched.  The  other  three,  thinking  almost  any 
other  plan  more  promising,  now  climb  the  roof  and 
seek  to  descend  the  chimney.  But  female  ingenuity 
is  fertile  in  resources.  There  is  only  one  feather  bed 
in  the  house,  and  quick  as  thought  she  empties  it  into 
the  bed  of  glowing  coals  in  the  fireplace.  Two  more 
of  the  Indians,  suffocated  by  the  pungent  fumes,  fall 
into  the  fire,  and  as  they  grovel  in  the  live  coals,  she 
splits  their  skulls  with  her  axe.  The  last  of  the  party 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  327 

tries  the  broken  door  again.  As  lie  is  crawling 
through,  the  valiant  woman  gives  him  also  a  death- 
wonnd  with  her  heavy  weapon,  and  is  left  safe  for  a 
time  and  alone  with  her  great  sorrow  and  her  brave 
revenge,  and  with  a  ghastly  company  of  eight  bloody 
corpses — her  husband  and  his  seven  murderers. 

There  was  for  many  years  resident  in  the  North 
western  Territory,  in  what  became  afterward  the 
State  of  Illinois,  a  French  Creole  woman,  born  at  the 
post  of  St.  Joseph's,  upon  Lake  Michigan.  She  was 
fortunate  enough,  during  her  singular  life,  to  have 
three  husbands,  two  of  them  Frenchmen  and  one 
American.  She  was  known  as  Madame  Lecompte, 
the  name  of  her  second  husband,  for  that  of  the 
third  she  did  not  choose  to  keep ;  a  very  vigorous, 
clear-minded  person,  capable  of  adapting  herself  to 
circumstances,  and  well  experienced  in  the  customs 
of  her  Indian  neighbors.  Born  in  1735,  she  so 
journed  some  time  in  Michigan,  and  afterward 
descended  to  the  French  settlements  in  Illinois,  and 
here  took  up  her  residence  at  Kahohia.  Many  times, 
when  the  Indians  were  making  descents  upon  the 
French  at  the  instigation  of  the  English,  this  woman, 
who  was  much  beloved  by  the  savages,  received  pre 
vious  information  from  them  that  they  were  about  to 
attack  the  settlements,  in  order  that  she  might  escape 
before  the  onslaught.  The  message  always  came  in 
the  night-time  ;  but  instead  of  escaping,  the  bold- 


328  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

hearted  woman  would  instantly  set  out  for  tlie  Indian 
camp,  approach  as  clay  was  breaking,  and  freely 
enter  amongst  their  host,  secure  of  respectful  treat 
ment.  Sometimes  she  would  stop  with  them  one, 
two,  or  three  days ;  protesting,  urging,  reasoning  with 
them,  and  inducing  them  at  length  to  give  up  their 
foray.  "Returning  to  the  settlement,  with  three  or 
four  hundred  savage  warriors,  who  had  come  out  to 
burn  and  slay,  she  brought  them,  in  friendly  guise,  to 
make  their  humble  acknowledgments  to  the  settlers, 
and  to  partake  of  their  hospitality.  Thus,  in  a  dozen 
cases  at  least,  did  this  brave  woman,  at  Kahokia  and 
Kaskaskia,  prevent  the  destruction  of  the  French  and 
American  inhabitants.  She  lived  till  1843,  reaching 
the  astonishing  age  of  a  hundred  and  nine  years  ; 
and  the  old  chronicler,  Governor  Eeynolds,  whom  I 
am  so  fortunate  as  to  number  among  my  personal 
friends,  says,  that  to  the  last  she  was  active  in  body 
and  mind,  and  possessed  her  faculties  and  functions, 
intellectual  and  physical,  at  that  advanced  period, 
better  than  women  of  forty  or  fifty  do  now.  She 
was  accustomed  to  go  out  in  all  weathers,  walking  on 
the  ice  and  snow,  and  in  the  open  air,  and  health, 
longevity,  beauty  of  complexion,  were  more  certainly 
secured  by  this  means,  says  Governor  Eeynolds,  than 
by  making  pilgrimages  "  on  fine,  rich  carpets,  be 
tween  the  piano  and  the  air-tight  stove." 

William  Whiteside,  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution, 


OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.  329 

who  had  fought  bravely  and  well  at  the  battle  of 
King's  Mountain,  a  strong  athletic  woodsman,  of 
Irish  blood,  was  in  1795  settled  in  the  American 
Bottom,  between  Kaskaskia  and  Kahokia.  Getting 
intelligence  that  a  party  of  Indians  was  encamped  in 
the  neighborhood,  with  the  design  of  stealing  his 
horses,  the  fiery  old  warrior  summoned  a  little  band 
of  fourteen  men,  his  tried  companions  in  many  a 
combat  with  the  savages,  and  set  out  to  surprise 
them  in  camp.  Surrounding  them  just  before  day,  a 
furious  charge  was  made,  and  after  a  severe  combat, 
all  the  Indians  were  killed  but  one,  who  fled,  and  who 
was  killed  when  he  got  home,  by  his  tribesmen,  for 
his  cowardice.  In  this  battle,  Capt.  "Whiteside  re 
ceived  a  wound  which  he  thought  mortal,  and  which 
brought  him  to  the  ground.  But  he  neither  flinched 
nor  feared ;  and  he  lay  there  exhorting  his  men  to 
fight  bravely,  not  to  retreat  an  inch,  and  never  to 
permit  the  enemy  to  touch  him  after  he  was  dead. 
One  of  his  sons,  who  was  unable  to  use  his  gun,  being 
wounded  in  the  arm,  now  came  up,  and  on  examin 
ing  his  father's  wound,  discovered  that  the  ball  had 
merely  glanced  from  a  rib,  and  passing  round,  had 
lodged  under  the  skin  near  the  spine.  He  quietly 
drew  his  butcher-knife  and  cut  out  the  ball,  as  he 
would  out  of  a  tree,  merely  remarking  in  a  dry  way, 
"Father,  you're  not  dead  yet!"  The  old  man,  on 
reflection,  thought  so  too ;  and  jumping  to  his  feet, 


330  PIONEEES,    PEEACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

cried  out,  "  Boys,  I  can  fight  the  Indians  yet !"  and 
rushed  again  into  the  fight. 

I  shall  not  delay  to  give  details  of  the  incessant 
border  barbarities  of  the  Indians ;  nor  of  the  expedi 
tions  which,  one  after  another,  went  forth  against 
them.  After  a  considerable  period,  the  general 
government  undertook  the  defence  of  the  western  set 
tlements.  I  need  not  detail  the  adventures,  the  suffer 
ings,  the  defeats  and  degradation  of  the  hapless  hosts 
of  Harrnor  and  St.  Glair ;  nor  the  splendid  triumphal 
progress  of  Anthony  "Wayne ;  nor  the  decisive  vic 
tory  gained  by  him  in  the  great  battle  of  the  Fallen 
Timber,  which  reduced  the  belligerent  tribes  to  a 
condition  of  humble,  though  unwilling  submission. 
But  I  will  take  time  to  narrate  a  few  circumstances 
of  individual  adventure  in  "Wayne's  army,  wThich 
will  serve  as  additional  illustrations  of  the  character 
of  western  woodsmen  of  that  day. 

Attached  to  Wayne's  army  was  a  small  body  of 
scouts,  whose  business  it  was  to  range  up  and  down 
the  wroods  in  front  and  flank  of  the  line  of  march, 
familiarize  themselves  with  the  movements  of  the 
savages,  and  every  now  and  then  to  arrest  some 
Indian  and  bring  him  to  the  camp,  that  the  general 
might  get  his  news  at  first  hand.  The  head  of  these 
scouts  was  Captain  "William  "Wells,  wrho  had  asso 
ciated  with  him  a  man  named  Miller,  another  named 
McLennan,  and  three  others.  These,  while  in  camp, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  331 

were  gentlemen  at  large,  and  no  duties  devolved 
upon  them ;  but  when  they  were  on  the  war-path 
their  occupations  were  of  a  sufficiently  hazardous 
description  to  make  up  for  former  ease.  In  1793, 
Wayne  had  sent  out  "Wells,  with  Miller  and  McLen 
nan,  for  the  purpose  of  catching  an  Indian.  They 
proceeded  northward  in  the  direction  of  some  Indian 
towns.  When  yet  at  a  distance,  they  heard  a  sound 
of  merry-making  ;  and  approaching  an  open  glade  in 
the  wood,  found  three  Indians  seated  near  its  centre, 
cooking  venison,  laughing  and  talking  at  leisure. 
The  three  spies  were  too  distant  to  rush  in  upon 
them  ;  and  it  was  necessary  to  take  one  of  them  alive. 
They  therefore  skirted  along  the  timber  till  they 
came  opposite  to  the  point  from  which  they  had  first 
discovered  the  savages.  Here  there  was  a  fallen 
tree ;  and  creeping  along  this  until  they  were  safely 
ensconced  between  the  branches,  it  was  arranged 
that  the  spy  on  the  right  should  shoot  the  Indian  on 
the  right ;  he  on  the  left  should  pick  his  man  in  the 
same  way,  while  McLennan,  who  was  in  the  middle, 
and  the  fleetest  man  in  the  party,  was  to  run  after 
the  third  Indian,  and  seize  him.  The  fire  was  given, 
the  two  Indians  fell  dead,  and,  as  was  expected,  the 
middle  one  took  to  his  heels  with  all  dispatch, 
McLennan  after  him.  The  smoke  had  not  cleared 
away  before  the  two  men  were  seen  bounding  along 
at  the  top  of  their  speed.  jSTear  at  hand  was  a 


332  PIONEKES,    PREACHERS    AND    PF.OPT.Tg 

stream  of  water.  The  Indian,  seeing  McLennan 
gaining  on  him,  ran  to  the  river,  and  plunging  over 
a  bluff,  twenty  feet  high,  landed  in  a  deep  quagmire. 
McLennan,  without  pausing,  sprang  over  him  ;  and 
up  to  their  breasts,  as  they  stood,  both  mired  fast, 
but  within  reach  of  each  other,  a  desperate  struggle 
ensued.  The  knife  and  tomahawk  were  drawn,  and 
the  two  foes  were  on  the  point  of  a  bloody  conflict, 
when  the  other  two  spies  came  up,  and  burst  into  a 
hearty  laugh  at  the  absurd  phase  of  the  spectacle. 
The  Indian,  seeing  that  there  was  no  chance  for  him, 
dropped  his  weapons  and  surrendered.  The  others 
extricated  them  from  their  embarrassing  attitude; 
and  while  the  two  who  had  been  in  the  morass  w^ere 
washing  off  the  dirt,  it  was  discovered  that  the  man 
who  had  thus  been  seized,  was  not  really  an  Indian, 
though  burned  and  browned  so  as  to  be  almost  of 
their  tawny  complexion;  but  that  he  bore  indubit 
able  marks  of  white  origin.  Miller  had  himself  been 
a  prisoner  with  the  Indians  many  years,  having  been 
captured  in  his  early  youth ;  and  had  left  a  brother, 
Christopher  Miller,  in  their  hands.  A  strange  sus 
picion  flashed  upon  him.  It  was  years  since  he  had 
seen  his  brother.  The  white  Indian,  however,  was 
sulky,  and  refused  to  answer  any  questions,  until 
Miller,  riding  up — for  they  had  placed  him  upon  a 
llorse — called  him  by  his  Indian  name.  The  man 
flushed,  turned  crimson,  and  asked,  "  How  do  you 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  333 

know  my  name  ?"  Here  was  the  truth  revealed  as 
by  a  miracle.  The  brothers'  hands  had  been  provi 
dentially  stayed  from  shedding  each  other's  blood ; 
and  after  long  and  urgent  entreaty,  pleading  even 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  Miller  succeeded  in  winning 
Christopher  from  his  wild  Indian  ways ;  and  tit 
length  induced  him  to  join  their  scouting  and  forag 
ing  party,  of  which  he  became  one  of  the  most  reso 
lute  and  indomitable  members. 

Thus  reinforced,  and  with  two  other  men,  they 
were  sent  on  a  subsequent  occasion,  by  General 
Wayne,  to  take  other  prisoners.  They  had  pro 
ceeded  thirty-five  miles  from  Fort  Defiance,  in  the 
direction  of  Maumee.  This  was  in  the  year  1794, 
just  before  the  great  battle  in  which  Wayne  was  vic 
torious.  Arriving  within  two  miles  of  the  English 
post,  they  rode  boldly  into  an  Indian  town  near  to 
where  Fort  Meigs  was  afterward  built,  as  if  they 
had  come  from  the  British  fort ;  and  being  painted 
and  decorated  with  feathers  in  Indian  style,  although 
they  met  Indians  constantly,  as  some  of  them  could 
speak  the  language,  they  wrere  supposed  to  be  none 
other  than  a  party  of  Indians.  In  an  out-of-the-way 
place,  beyond  the  town,  they  seize  an  Indian  warrior 
with  his  squaw,  gag  and  handcuff  them,  tie  them 
upon  the  saddle,  and  turn  toward  the  American 
camp.  Presently  they  reach  the  neighborhood  of  a 
large  Indian  encampment ;  and  now  these  seven 


334  PIOXEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

reckless  men  make  a  detour,  and  gain  the  brush  at 
some  distance,  where  they  conceal  their  prisoners, 
and  then  resolve  to  return  and  have  a  bout  with  the 
Indians  in  camp.  It  is  understood  by  previous 
arrangement  that  they  are  to  ride  in  as  if  they  were 
all  Indians,  and  enter  into  an  amicable  conversation 
with  any  parties  about  the  fires,  in  order  that  they 
may  gain  all  the  information  possible.  Sitting  quietly 
on  their  saddles,  every  man  with  his  hand  on  the 
trigger  of  his  rifle,  they  coolly  ride  into  the  camp  as 
agreed.  They  have  an  agreeable  chat  of  fifteen  or 
twenty  minutes  with  the  Indian  warriors,  who  are 
loitering  around  the  fires  ;  when  an  old  chief  sitting 
upon  a  log,  whispers  to  his  friends  that  there  is 
something  suspicious  about  these  men  ;  they  don't 
seem  Indians.  Wells  overhears  the  remark;  the 
spies  discharge  their  rifles  each  into  the  breast  of  an 
Indian,  and  then  putting  spurs  to  their  horses,  and 
lying  down  on  their  necks  so  as  to  present  less  mark 
for  their  enemy's  fire,  they  ride  full  speed  into  the 
forest,  whooping  and  hallooing  as  if  they  were 
demons.  The  Indians  however,  grasp  their  rifles 
and  deliver  their  fire,  in  confusion  and  bewilder 
ment.  Yet  before  the  spies  have  got  beyond  the 
circle  of  the  firelight  McLennan  is  shot  shrough  the 
shoulder,  and  Wells,  receiving  a  bullet  in  his  arm, 
loses  his  rifle.  May,  a  third  man,  was  taken  prisoner; 
the  others,  after  a  dangerous  and  fatiguing  journey, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  335 

arrived  safely  at^camp.  And  this  was  a  funny  freak ; 
an  amusing  adventure ;  a  specimen  of  the  sport 
relished  by  the  rugged  Borderers  of  that  old  day. 

McLennan  was  the  fleetest  runner  in  Wayne's  army ; 
doubtless  one  of  the  fleetest  that  ever  lived.  It  is 
told  of  him  on  good  authority,  that  when  the 
army  was  encamped  at  Greenville,  he  took  a  short 
run,  and  sprang  over  a  camp  wagon  which  rose,  with 
its  cover  on,  just  nine  feet  from  the  ground. 

Captain  "Wells,  the  chief  of  this  band  of  daring 
men,  met  an  appropriate  fate  in  a  characteristic 
manner.  Long  after  Wayne's  expedition,  during 
the  Indian  hostilities  in  1812,  he  held  the  official 
position  of  interpreter  to  the  Miami  nation.  The 
Pottawatomies  had  surrounded  the  American  garrison 
of  Fort  Dearborn,  where  Chicago  now  stands;  and 
Wells,  whose  niece  was  wife  to  the  commander, 
Major  Heald,  had  gone  thither  with  the  intention 
of  aiding  the  troops  to  escape  to  Fort  Wayne.  But 
he  was  excessively  obnoxious  to  the  Pottawatomies, 
who  were  also  much  enraged  at  finding  that  the  gar 
rison  of  Fort  Dearborn  had  destroyed  their  powder, 
instead  of  delivering  it  up  as  was  agreed.  A  little 
after  the  garrison,  according  to  a  sort  of  capitula 
tion  between  the  officers  and.v  chiefs,  had  set  out  on 
their  journey  to  Fort  Wayne,  the  irritated  Potta 
watomies  attacked  them.  Wells,  seeing  instantly 
that  there  was  no  hope,  and  knowing  that  if 


336  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND    PEOPLE 

lie  were  taken  prisoner,  he  would  be  subjected  to 
long  and  dreadful  tortures,  wetted  powder  and 
blackened  his  face  in  token  of  defiance,  and  mount 
ing  his  horse,  began  to  pour  out  on  the  Indians  all 
the  abusive  and  insulting  terms  he  was  master  of. 
This,  as  he  had  intended,  soon  irritated  them  to  such 
a  pitch  that  one  of  them  shot  him  down  from  his 
horse,  and  then  springing  upon  him  like  a  beast,  cut 
him  open,  tore  out  his  heart  and  ate  it. 

And  now  I  come  to  the  last  portion  of  my  subject. 
In  the  early  years  of  the  present  century  there  sud 
denly  arose  from  the  midst  of  peace  and  security,  a 
danger  that  threatened  anew  the  existence  of  the 
country,  by  aiming  at  the  disruption  of  its  territory. 
This  was  the  result  of  certain  plans  of  a  man  who 
had  served  with  credit  in  the  Eevolutionary  war, 
rising  to  the  rank  of  colonel ;  of  a  singularly  acute, 
and   shrewd  intellect,   fascinating    address,    perfect 
courtesy   of   manner,    profoundly   acquainted    with 
human  nature,  a  quick  reader  of  the  faults  and  follies 
of  all  about  him,  as  haughtily  and   unscrupulously 
ambitious  as  Lucifer  himself;  long  a  most  able  and 
successful  politician ;  once  Yice-President,  ai>r—  faili 
of  the  Presidency  itself  only  by  a  few  voti. 
however,  in  consequence  of  that  failui\ 
of  his  party  ;  the  deliberate  and  deli_ 
of  the  greatest  statesman  our  country  ever  boasted ; 
but  now  an  outlaw  by  proclammation,  quite  bank- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  337 

rupt  in  fortune  and  in  political  hopes,  and  ready  for 
any  design,  how  bad  or  desperate  soever,  which  ex 
hibited  any  chance  of  regaining  wealth  and  power. 
For  between  fame  and  notoriety,  Aaron  Burr  seems 
to  have  no  choice. 

Burr's  plans  were  masked  by  a  pretended  enter 
prise  for  colonizing  a  large  tract  of  wild  lands  among 
the  distant  rivers  and  marshes  of  upper  Louisiana,  in 
which  he  held  a  nominal  interest  under  the  Spanish 
grant  to  the  Baron  de  Bastrop.  His  actual  design  he 
most  probably  never  fully  revealed  to  any  person. 
But  the  common  belief  is  well  founded  that  he  in 
tended  to  attack  the  Spanish  possessions,  and  to  carve 
out  for  himself  some  principality  or  magnificent 
estate  somewhere  in  the  "West,  between  the  Missis 
sippi  River  and  the  Isthmus  of  Darien.  Whether 
his  empire  was  to  be  Mexico,  Texas,  or  Louisiana, 
and  how  far  his  scheme  included  the  territory  of  the 
United  States,  will  probably  never  be  known. 

Burr  visited  the  "West  in  two  successive  years, 
1805  and  1806  ;  winning  friends  and  partisans  every 
where,  and  by  that  strange  personal  magnetism 
1  •  i-  -•--  "«'-liaps,  his  most  remarkable  character- 
g  especially  a  favorite  among  the 
his  second  visit,  however,  he  was 
suit  of  Col.  Joseph  Hamilton  Daviess, 
then  IT.  S.  attorney ;  who,  almost  alone  among  the 
whole  population  of  Kentucky,  was  profoundly  con- 

15 


338  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

vinced  of  the  treasonableness  of  Burr's  designs. 
Daviess  is  famous  as  an  orator ;  but  far  more  deserv 
ing  of  renown,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  impregnable 
moral  courage  and  lofty  rock-like  steadfastness  to  his 
convictions  which  he  showed  in  the -series  of  vigorous 
endeavors  he  made  under  circumstances  the  most 
discouraging,  to  insure  the  trial  of  a  man  whom  he  be 
lieved  a  criminal.  lie  was  one  of  the  very  few  federal 
ists  in  Kentucky;  and  as  such,  all  his  public  acts 
were  of  course  bitterly  censured,  and  his  motives 
continually  questioned.  In  the  present  instance, 
however,  the  bold  attorney  had  not  only  to  stand  up 
under  the  weight  of  this  political  odium,  which  his 
powerful  shoulders  had  already  easily  supported  for 
years,  but  under  the  accumulated  storm  of  obloquy, 
indignation,  and  ridicule,  which  wras  liberally  hurled 
against  him  from  all  sides,  for  liis  persevering  attacks 
upon  a  man  of  national  reputation,  whose  personal 
and  political  friends  filled  Kentucky,  and  who  num 
bered  among  those  who  were  either  his  very  partners 
in  crime,  or  his  zealous  followers  in  a  supposed  jus 
tifiable  political  enterprise,  numbers  of  the  influential 
citizens  of  the  District. 

Did  the  occasion  permit,  an  interesting  account 
might  be  given  of  the  exciting  legal  contest  which 
began  on  the  third  of  November,  1806,  before  the 
United  States  District  Court,  of  which  Harry  Innis, 
previously  a  fellow-intriguer  of  Benjamin  Sebastian 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  339 

with  the  Spaniards,  was  judge.  A  motion  by  Daviess, 
for  process  to  bring  Burr  up  to  answer  a  charge  of 
misdemeanor  in  organizing  a  military  expedition 
within  the  United  States,  against  a  friendly  power, 
opened  the  case.  The  motion  was  denied,  but  was 
granted  a  short  time  afterward,  at  Burr's  own  re 
quest.  Twice,  a  day  was  fixed  for  the  trial,  and 
each  time  the  resolute  attorney  found  himself,  to  his 
keen  mortification,  obliged  to  ask  an  adjournment  on 
account  of  the  absence  of  an  essential  witness.  The 
second  time  Daviess  requested  the  Court  to  keep  the 
jury  iinpannelled  until  he  could  bring  up  the  recusant 
by  capias  /  and  while  Burr,  who  had,  on  the  former 
occasion  made  a  dignified  and  most  telling  address 
to  the  Court,  remained  silent,  Daviess  was  opposed 
by  Henry  Clay,  Burr's  counsel ;  and  for  hours  to 
gether  these  celebrated  orators  battled  with  each 
other  upon  the  legal  question,  but  illuminated  and 
pointed  their  arguments  with  brilliant  rhetoric  and 
sharp  and  personal  assaults  and  rejoinders,  which 
held  the  crowded  court-room  in  the  profoundest 
silence. 

Innis  refused  to  keep  the  jury  without  business ; 
and  Daviess,  to  gain  a  little  time,  sent  to  them  an  in 
dictment  against  the  absent  witness,  John  Adair, 
which  they  found  not  a  true  bill.  He  then  moved 
to  compel  his  attendance  by  attachment,  but  was 
again  baffled  ;  and  the  case  going  to  the  grand  jury, 


34:0  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

with  the  witnesses  then  present.  Burr  was  triumph 
antly  acquitted  by  the  throwing  out  of  Daviess'  bill. 
The  friends  of  the  victorious  plotter  gave  a  splendid 
ball  in  Frankfort  in  honor  of  the  occasion,  and 
Daviess'  friends,  rallying,  followed  it  by  another  in 
his  honor. 

Burr  had  only  secured  the  services  of  Clay  by  a 
most  sweeping  and  enormous  falsehood.  He  assured 
him  in  the  strongest  and  broadest  terms  that  he 
neither  entertained  views,  nor  possessed  friends  nor 
means  intended  or  calculated  to  disturb  the  govern 
ment  in  any  manner  whatever ;  and  that  he  had 
signed  no  military  commission,  and  owned  no  mili 
tary  stores  or  weapons ;  and  to  this  vast  lie  he 
pledged  his  honor.  The  tremendous  impudence  of 
the  fabrication  will  appear,  when  it  is  remembered 
that  his  military  preparations  had  begun  four  months 
before,  and  that  at  the  very  moment  of  making  it, 
the  advance  of  his  army,  organized,  armed,  and  pro 
visioned,  was  on  Blennerhassett's  island,  on  the 
frontiers  of  Kentucky;  or  even  descending  the  Ohio. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  delusion  which  had  so 
long  obscured  the  Kentuckians,  was  thoroughly  dis 
pelled,  and  they  did  justice  to  the  penetration  and 
resolute  perseverance  of  Daviess,  whose  reputation 
throughout  the  "West  rose  to  a  higher  pitch  than  ever- 
There  are  few  public  men  who  are  not,  at  some 
period  of  life,  called  to  pass  through  a  similar  ordeal 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  341 

of  misunderstanding,  perhaps  almost  ignominy.  But 
to  him  who  is  in  the  right,  the  time  of  recompense 
always  comes.  The  clouds  do  not  always  tarry  about 
the  mountain's  side.  They  roll  themselves  up  and 
shrink  away  in  the  sunshine,  and  the  everlasting 
peak  stands  out  in  its  grandeur,  lifted  high  in  the 
heavens,  uninjured  by  the  darkness  that  is  past,  and 
seeming  even  more  magnificent  at  the  withdrawal  of 
its  transient  veil. 

Burr,  leaving  Frankfort  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
trial,  joined  his  forces,  descended  the  Ohio  and  Mis 
sissippi,  and  was  arrested  and  his  men  dispersed 
near  Natchez.  He  was  taken  to  Washington,  the 
capital  of  the  Mississippi  Territory,  and  without  diffi 
culty  found  friends  who  gave  bail  in  ten  thousand 
dollars  for  his  appearance  at  court.  He  appeared, 
moved  unsuccessfully  for  a  discharge,  and  apprehen 
sive  of  the  consequences  of  a  removal  before  a  higher 
court,  fled  away  eastward  by  night. 

On  the  18th  of  February,  180T,  late  at  night, 
Nicholas  Perkins,  register,  and  Thomas  Malone,  clerk 
of  the  court,  are  playing  backgammon  in  their  cabin, 
in  the  little  village  of  Wakefield,  on  the  western 
verge  of  Alabama,  when  a  knock  is  heard  at  the 
door,  and  on  opening  it,  two  travellers  inquire  of 
Perkins  the  route  to  Col.  Hinson's.  While  he 
answers  that  it  is  seven  miles  away,  by  a  difficult 
path  and  over  a  dangerous  creek,  his  companion 


342  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

throws  more  pine-wood  on  the  fire,  and  the  blaze 
now  enables  the  inquisitive  register  to  observe  that 
the  speaker  has  a  keen,  striking  face,  and  eyes  that 
flash  and  sparkle  with  wonderful  brilliancy;  that  he 
wears  an  old  hat  and  coarse  clothes,  but  remarkably 
handsome  boots.  The  travellers  ride  on,  and  Perkins 
instantly  assures  his  companion  that  the  inquirer  is 
Aaron  Burr,  and  urges  him  to  go  with  himself  at 
once  to  Hinson's  and  procure  his  arrest.  Malone 
declines.  The  register,  hurrying  off  to  the  sheriff,  one 
Brightwell,  awakens  him ;  and  they  set  out  at  once 
for  Hinson's,  which  they  reach  after  a  severe  jour 
ney.  Perkins  thinks  best  to  stay  in  the  woods,  lest 
Burr  should  recognize  him,  and  sends  Brightwell 
into  the  house,  who  satisfies  himself  that  they  are 
right,  but,  for  some  reason,  delays  to  take  any  steps 
for  the  capture.  Perkins,  after  waiting  shivering  in 
the  woods  until  he  is  tired,  and  hearing  nothing  of 
the  sheriff,  now  makes  the  best  of  his  way  to  Fort 
Stoddart,  on  the  Tombigbee,  commanded  by  Captain 
Edmund  P.  Gaines,  where  he  arrives  at  sunrise. 
Gaines,  on  learning  the  news,  at  once  sets  out  with  a 
file  of  men,  and  about  nine  o'clock  meets  Burr,  with 
his  companion,  together  with  Brightwell,  the  recreant 
sheriff,  who  seems  to  have  been  fascinated  by  Burr, 
and  now  to  have  been  guiding  him  on  the  road  to 
Pensacola ;  from  which  port  he  would  have  sailed  for 
Europe,  to  endeavor  there  to  obtain  new  means  for 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  343 

his  intended  expedition.  Notwithstanding  the  vehe 
ment  eloquence  with  which  Burr  denounced  the 
proclamations  and  proceedings  for  his  arrest,  and  the 
ingenious  mode  in  which  he  enlarged  upon  the 
responsibility  of  stopping  travellers,  the  straightfor 
ward  young  soldier  marches  him  to  the  fort,  and 
retains  him  there  for  some  time,  while  he  prepares  to 
send  him  prisoner  to  Virginia.  During  this  time, 
Burr  makes  himself  a  favorite  with  an  invalid  bro 
ther  of  the  commander,  with  Mrs.  Captain  Gaines, 
an  accomplished  and  lovely  woman,  daughter  of 
Judge  Harry  Toulmin,  and  wdth  every  one  he  meets. 
After  some  weeks,  Gaines  succeeds  in  forming  an 
escort  to  his  mind,  consisting  of  Colonel  Nicholas 
Perkins,  who  had  caused  the  arrest,  two  United 
States  soldiers,  and  seven  or  eight  men  chosen  by 
Perkins  as  especially  reliable,  energetic,  and  unse- 
ducible  ;  and  after  a  long  and  most  fatiguing  journey, 
all  the  hardships  and  dangers  of  which  Burr  endured 
without  a  complaint,  they  reached  the  settled  country 
of  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  "While  passing  through 
South  Carolina,  where  Burr  was  still  popular,  and  of 
which  his  son-in-law,  Alston,  wTas  governor,  he 
attempted  to  escape,  leaping  from  his  horse  and 
appealing  to  the  citizens  whom  he  found  assembled 
at  a  merry-making  at  one  of  the  towns  on  the  road. 
But  Perkins,  a  tall  and  athletic  man,  seized  Burr  and 
flung  him  bodily  into  the  saddle,  and  with  one  guard 


344  PIOXEEES,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE. 

holding  his  horse's  bridle,  and  others  urging  the 
beast  from  behind,  they  hurried  him  onward  out  of 
reach.  In  the  revulsion  of  his  disappointment  at  this 
failure,  Burr,  ordinarily  so  inaccessible  to  fear  or  sor 
row,  for  once  gave  way  to  a  violent  outburst  of  grief, 
and  even  wept  like  a  child ;  and  one  of  his  guards,  a 
kind-hearted  man,  wept  with  him.  Burr  was  safely 
conveyed  the  remainder  of  the  distance  to  Rich 
mond;  the  story  of  his  trial  there,  and  his  subse 
quent  varying  fortunes,  his  obscure  and  evil  life,  his 
unhappy  death,  is  sufficiently  familiar  to  you.  The 
moral  of  his  career  has  often  been  recited,  but  it  will 
bear  a  repetition.  The  lesson  is  simple,  but  fearfully 
important ;  and  its  weight  is  not  lessened  by  any  cir 
cumstance  in  the  manners  or  the  morals  of  our  times. 
Burr  was  a  man  of  splendid  intellect,  and  of  power 
ful  passions.  He  had  both  the  magnificent  machine, 
and  vast  motive  power.  But  he  was  destitute  of 
moral  sentiment,  or  of  religious  feeling.  He  lacked 
the  guiding  and  controlling  hand  that  must  measure 
the  application  of  the  force,  and  direct  the  working 
of  the  enginery.  And  without  this,  without  the  wise 
and  just  hand  on  engine  and  on  helm,  the  magnifi 
cence  of  the  vessel  only  makes  her  ruin  the  sadder ; 
the  power  and  speed  of  her  movements  only  drive 
her  with  a  more  fearful  crash  upon  the  fatal  rocks. 
Head  without  heart  tends  straight  and  fast  to  de 
struction,  and  brings  the  awful  fate  of  Aaron  Burr. 


Lecture  VIII. 


MAMA  IN  THE  WILDERNESS; 


OR, 


THE  OLD  PREACHERS  AND  THEIR  PREACHING. 


15* 


MANNA  IN  THE  WILDERNESS  j 

OR, 

THE  OLD  PREACHERS  AND  THEIR  PREACHING. 

AFTER  the  defeat  of  the  English  forces  before 
Fort  Duquesne  tinder  the  ill-fated  Braddock,  it  was 
desired  still  to  wrest  that  strong  position  from  the 
grasp  of  the  French,  and  General  Forbes  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  an  expedition  to  effect  that  object.  It 
was  thought  fit,  however,  that  he  should  be  preceded 
by  some  person  sufficiently  able  and  experienced  to 
bring  over  the  minds  of  the  indomitable  inhabitants 
of  the  wilderness  from,  the  cause  of  the  French  to 
that  of  the  English.  The  person  selected  for  this 
hazardous  enterprise  was  a  Moravian  missionary, 
Christian  Frederick  Post.  He  had  long  been  labor 
ing  among  the  Delawares  on  the  Susquehanna,  and 
had  acquired  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Indian 
languages,  and  of  their  habits  and  customs.  He  was 
calm,  simple-hearted,  intrepid,  and  accustomed  to  all 
the  perils  he  had  now  to  face.  Confiding  himself 
and  his  cause  to  the  hands  of  his  Great  Master,  he 

847 


348  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

betook  himself  to  the  forest,  attended  by  a  little  com 
pany  of  savages.  His  negotiation  was  eminently 
successful ;  and  though  his  life  was  threatened  again 
and  again,  he  succeeded  in  returning  safely  to  the 
settlements.  By  the  wise  and  skillful  efforts  of  this 
man,  the  Indians  were  completely  won  over  to  the 
cause  of  the  English.  The  fall  of  Fort  Duquesne 
was  the  consequence ;  and  the  arms  of  the  English 
were  crowned  with  triumph. 

After  the  close  of  the  war,  in  1761,  Post  re 
turned  to  his  labor  among  the  Indians,  crossed  the 
Alleghany  River,  and  found  himself  upon  the 
Muskingum,  in  the  now  State  of  Ohio.  Here  lie 
settled  among  the  Delawares,  whose  language  he 
knew,  and  among  whose  brethren  he  had  already 
labored  for  many  years.  But  the  tribe  among  whom 
he  now  found  himself,  while  a  part  of  them  were 
inclined  to  a  peacable  disposition  toward  the  Eng 
lish,  were  still  in  part  exceedingly  hostile ;  and  he 
found  great  difficulties  in  his  way.  These,  however, 
he  serenely  met  and  overcame.  Having  taken  pos 
session  of  a  piece  of  ground  allotted  him,  he  proposed 
to  erect  a  cabin,  for  the  double  purpose  of  a  home 
and  a  school-house,  that  he  might  instruct  the  savages 
and  their  children.  As  he  commenced  clearing  the 
timber  from  this  ground,  some  of  the  Indians  in 
quired  his  intentions.  He  told  them  that  a  mission 
ary  must  live,  and  in  order  to  eat,  he  must  raise  corn. 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  349 

,"  said  the  Indians ;  "  the  French  priests  with 
whom  we  are  acquainted,  to  whose  labors  we  have 
been  accustomed,  look  fat  and  comely,  and  they  raise 
no  corn ;  and  if  you  be  the  servant  of  God,  as  you 
say  you  are,  and  as  they  say  they  are,  your  God  will 
feed  you,  as  he  feeds  them ;  you  can  therefore  have 
no  large  tract  of  ground  to  till.  If  you  have  a  farm, 
other  English  will  come  and  open  farms,  and  then  a 
fort  must  be  built  to  defend  you  ;  and  then  our  lands 
will  be  taken  away  from  us,  and  we  shall  be  driven 
toward  the  setting  sun."  The  logic  of  the  Indians 
was  excellent,  and  their  power  sufficient  to  sustain 
it,  if  it  was  not;  Post  had,  therefore,  to  content 
himself  with  a  small  patch  sufficient  for  a  vegetable 
garden.  Here,  then,  in  company  with  the  cele 
brated  Heckewelder,  he  commenced  his  labors. 

The  war  of  Pontiac  beginning  in  the  following 
year,  the  two  missionaries,  warned  of  their  danger 
by  the  simple-hearted  Indian  children  of  the  forest, 
returned  east  of  the  mountains,  and  there  remained  for 
six  years,  when,  together  with  David  Zcisberger,  they 
came  back  to  the  Muskingum,  and  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  town  of  Gnadenhutten,  a  memorable  settle 
ment  of  the  good  Moravians  and  their  Indians.  This 
was  the  first  establishment  of  those  devout  and 
useful  missionaries  west  of  the  mountains.  Many  an 
Indian's  heart  was  won  to  the  cause  of  the  truth  by 
their  patience,  constancy,  and  judicious  humble 


350  PIONKEKS,    PJREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

instructions;  and  nourishing  out-stations  began  to 
grow  up  all  around  them.  During  all  the  Revolu 
tionary  struggle,  the  Moravians  were  successfully 
laboring  toward  the  conversion  of  the  Delaware 
Indians.  But  the  towns  they  occupied  were  unfor 
tunately  just  upon  the  frontier,  between  the  whites 
upon  the  one  side,  and  the  Indians  upon  the  other. 
The  "Wyandots  and  Shawnees,  fiercest  of  all  the 
hostile  tribes  of  the  Northwest,  in  making  incursions 
upon  the  frontiers  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania, 
must  needs  pass  through  the  settlements  of  these 
Christian  Indians ;  and  the  settlers  in  the  western 
parts  of  those  States,  in  attempting  to  make  reprisals 
for  the  outrages  perpetrated  upon  them,  must  also 
take  the  same  road.  They  were  thus  feared  and  sus 
pected  by  both  parties ;  and  the  British  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Detroit,  at  length  determined  that  their 
settlements  should  be  broken  up,  and,  with  or 
against  their  will,  they  must  now  be  removed  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Sandusky.  This  they  were  loath  to 
do,  and  would  not  voluntarily  abandon  their  peaceful 
homes  and  firesides,  their  pleasant  maize  fields,  and 
the  sunny  clearings  around  their  comfortable  resi 
dences.  But  they  were  forcibly  taken  away  by 
command  of  the  British  officers.  Nearly  a  hundred 
of  them  perished  in  the  winter  of  1781-2,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Sandusky  ;  and  the  survivors  re 
solved  to  return  to  their  old  settlements,  and  there 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  351 

gather  in  their  corn,  which   had   been  allowed  to 
remain  out  during  the  winter. 

A  company  of  settlers  from  the  western  part  of 
Pennsylvania  about  this  time  resolved  on  an  excur 
sion  into  the  Indian  territory  for  the  purpose  of 
punishing  the  Wyandots,  who  had  been  committing 
outrages  within  that  State.  About  ninety  of  these 
men,  under  the  command  of  one  Col.  Williamson,  after 
two  or  three  days'  march  from  Fort  Pitt,  reached  the 
peaceful  settlements  of -our  Christian  Indians.  The 
converts  were  abroad  in  the  fields,  men,  women,  and 
children,  gathering  in  their  corn.  Seeing  the  white 
men  approaching,  and  supposing  them  friendly,  they 
earner  forward  to  meet  them  courteous]y,  and  cor 
dially  invited  them  to  their  homes.  The  whites  told 
them  that  they  had  come  for  the  purpose  of  convey 
ing  them  for  safe  keeping  to  Fort  Pitt.  Some  of  the 
Indians  had  been  there  the  preceding  year,  and  had 
been  treated  with  remarkable  kindness  by  the  com 
mandant.  To  this  proposition  of  the  whites  they 
therefore  readily  acceded,  and  collected  themselves 
in  the  village.  All  the  remaining  Indians,  who  were 
scattered  in  various  localities  within  a  circuit  of  four 
or  five  miles,  were  also  brought  in.  "When  they 
were  all  gathered  together,  they  were  put  under  a 
guard,  and  the  question  was  then  put  by  the  colonel, 
"  Shall  these  Indians  be  put  to  death  or  marched  to 
Pittsburg  ?"  All  in  favor  of  sparing  their  lives 


352  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEES    AND    PEOPLE 

were  ordered  to  step  out  two  paces  in  advance  of  the 
line  as  the  detachment  stood.  Only  sixteen  men 
of  the  whole  ninety  took  the  requisite  step.  The 
vote  was  for  death.  The  intelligence  was  communi 
cated  to  those  humble  and  simple-minded  people, 
now  imprisoned  and  helpless  within  their  own  dwell 
ings,  and  they  were  told  that  with  the  morrow's 
dawn  they  must  all  perish.  They  begged  for  life, 
but  their  prayer  was  unheeded,  save  by  that  Ear 
which  is  ever  open  to  the  prayers  of  all.  The  white 
men  were  deaf  to  their  pleadings,  and  even  to  the 
wailings  of  women  and  the  innocent  entreaties  of 
little  children.  And  on  the  morrow  that  company 
of  men,  with  your  blood  and  mine  in  their  veins, 
Anglo-Saxon  men,  took  those  people,  five  and  thirty 
men,  four  and  thirty  women,  five  and  forty  little 
children,  laid  them  out  on  blocks  of  wood,  and  stand 
ing  over  them  with  their  axes,  clove  their  skulls  in 
sunder  ;  one  of  the  most  atrocious,  horrible,  devilish 
deeds  that  was  ever  perpetrated  upon  the  face  of  God 
Almighty's  earth ! 

Fearfully  enough  was  this  black-hearted  murder 
avenged  by  Him  who  watches  the  deeds  of  his  recre 
ant  children.  Next  year  these  same  volunteers  fitted 
out  another  expedition.  They  marched  this  time  five 
hundred  strong,  intending  not  only  to  burn  and  lay 
waste  the  territory  of  the  hostile  Indians,  but  also  to 
destroy  those  of  the  inoffensive  Christian  Indians  who 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  353 

yet  remained.  1  am  glad  to  say  that  most  of  them, 
diabolical  miscreants  as  they  were,  fell  victims  either 
to  the  tomahawks  of  the  hostile  savages,  or  to  the 
silent  and  unrelenting  power  of  the  wilderness.  Col. 
Crawford,  who  had  been  an  old  friend  and  agent  of 
George  Washington,  and  was  unwillingly  and  unwit 
tingly  made  commandant  of  this  last  party,  was  burnt 
alive  with  peculiarly  frightful  torments,  by  the  Wyan- 
dots,  by  whom  he  was  taken  prisoner. 

The  Moravian  brethren  were  the  first  to  bring  the 
Word  of  Life  and  Truth  into  the  vast  region  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley ;  always  of  course  excepting  the 
old  Jesuit  Fathers  and  other  Catholic  missionaries 
who  came  with  the  French.  There  are  yet,  in 
the  western  country,  and  have  been  ever  since  the 
time  of  those  atrocious  murders,  descendants  of  the 
Christian  Indians,  the  converts  of  the  Moravian 
brethren ;  and  I  believe  there  are  yet  some  white 
Moravians  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State  of  Ohio. 

South  of  the  Ohio,  the  earliest  Christian  denomina 
tion  to  enter  Kentucky  as  a  field  of  labor,  were  the 
Baptists — a  large  and  exceedingly  influential  sect  in 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  from  which  States 
most  of  the  early  settlers  of  Kentucky  came.  While 
there  were  few  preachers  who  came  with  the  single 
purpose  of  preaching  the  Word,  there  were  a  good 
many  who  were  licensed  to  administer  the  sacra 
ments,  or  whose  object  was  to  instruct  the  young,  or 


354:  PIONEERS,    PREACHEK8    AND   PEOPLE 

like  their  secular  companions,  to  take  possession  of 
the  country,  and  to  secure  for  themselves  farms  and 
estates.  These  were  not  long  after  followed  by 
Presbyterian  ministers  and  missionaries,  who  came 
here  expressly  for  the  purpose  of  preaching  the  Gos 
pel.  It  is  not  my  desire  here  to  assume  a  sectional 
or  denominational  position.  Nevertheless,  it  is  neces 
sary  to  call  special  attention  to  the  characteristics, 
peculiarities,  lives,  manners,  customs,  names,  and 
reputations  of  some  of  the  preachers  of  my  own 
church,  the  Methodist.  I  am  not  to  detract  in  the 
slightest  degree  from  either  the  Baptists  or  Presby 
terians,  the  two  other  pioneer  churches  in  the  wil 
derness.  Their  case  has  been  presented  in  literature. 
But  the  Methodist  church  has  had  comparatively 
little  advocacy  before  the  people  at  large.  But  little 
is  known,  outside  of  its  own  limits,  of  its  operations, 
movements,  or  men ;  or  of  their  agency  in  the  pro 
motion  of  civilization  and  Christianity.  And  it  is 
with  these  men  that  I  am  more  familiarly  acquainted, 
and  as,  for  the  major  part  of  this  lecture,  I  am  to 
rely  upon  my  own  personal  observation  and  acquaint 
ance  with  living  men,  and  with  and  of  those  who 
have  passed  away  from  the  scene  of  action  within  the 
last  twenty  years,  it  is  both  natural  and  necessary 
that  I  should  principally  speak  of  them. 

The  Baptists  did  a  noble  and  excellent  work,  as 
did  also  the  Presbyterians,  in  the  early  times  of  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  355 

West.  The  Methodist  church  was  a  younger  church 
than  these — its  first  regular  preachers  having  landed 
on  this  continent  in  1770.  Fourteen  years  after  their 
first  teacher,  sent  out  by  "Wesley,  set  foot  in  America — 
seven  years  after  the  first  Baptist  minister  in  Ken 
tucky — and  three  years  after  the  first  Presbyterian — 
they  commenced  penetrating  the  wilds  of  the  Far 
West,  and  their  pioneer  missionaries,  James  Haw 
and  Benjamin  Ogden,  crossed  the  Alleghanies  and 
entered  the  boundless  tracts  of  Kentucky.  Others 
rapidly  followed  him.  At  first  there  was  much  an 
tagonism — a  sort  of  pugnacious  rivalry  or  "  free 
fight "  between  these  various  denominations  out  in 
the  West — nor  has  this  yet  quite  passed  away.  There 
is  an  active,  rough,  resolute  courage,  independence, 
and  pluck  about  the  western  people,  which  inclines 
them  to  close  scuffling  and  grappling,  a  sort  of  knock 
down  attitude  visible  through  all  the  moods  of  their 
life  ;  and  their  clergy  are  not  free  from  the  same  pe 
culiarities.  They  were  therefore  great  controversial 
ists  ;  and  there  was  an  immense  din  about  Baptism 
and  Pedobaptism  ;  Free  Grace  and  Predestination ; 
Falling  from  Grace  and  the  Perseverance  of  the 
Saints,  etc.,  etc.  Brethren  of  different  denominations 
often  held  what  they  called  discussions  or  debates ; 
where  one  of  one  denomination  challenged  one  of 
another.  Meeting  together  before  the  people,  occu 
pying  a  temporary  pulpit  in  a  grove,  they  would 


356  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

thus  treat — and  maltreat — the  doctrines  and  views 
of  each  other,  to  the  eminent  edification,  and  often 
times  the  entertainment  of  the  assembled  multitude. 
The  people,  nevertheless,  were  somewhat  insensible 
to  the  preached  Word  during  the  first  twenty  years 
of  its  dispensation.  They  were  absorbed  by  Indian 
wars,  and  by  the  pressing  demands  upon  their  labor, 
necessary  to  maintain  physical  existence  in  a  new 
country.  Soon  afterward  came  in  French  infidelity 
with  French  politics ;  and  deism  and  atheism  were 
openly  avowed  on  every  hand.  Many  of  the  principal 
citizens  of  the  West  were  not  afraid  or  ashamed  to  own 
themselves  skeptical  or  infidels  in  regard  to  the  old 
system  of  Revelation.  Thus  the  field  which  these  pio 
neer  preachers  were  called  to  till  was  a  hard  and  stony 
one ;  and  they  had  much  difficulty  in  pushing  their  way. 
The  Presbyterians  and  Methodists  found  it  neces 
sary,  toward  the  close  of  the  last  century,  to  conjoin 
their  efforts  and  unite  for  the  furtherance  of  the  com 
mon  cause.  This  was  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
State  of  Kentucky.  They  held  "  union  meetings  ;" 
sacramental  meetings,  where  the  two  denominations 
worked  together,  kindly  and  efficient  yoke-fellows. 
Under  these  efforts  the  people  at  length  became  much 
excited  on  the  subject  of  religion,  and  there  then  broke 
out,  in  the  spring  of  1800,  the  most  extraordinary  re 
vival  of  religion  that  ever  happened  on  this  conti 
nent,  or  perhaps  in  the  history  the  church  since  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  357 

Day  of  Pentecost.  It  was  called  the  Cumberland 
Revival,  or  the  Great  Revival.  It  broke  out  at  one 
of  these  sacramental  occasions,  when  the  Methodist 
and  Presbyterian  ministers  were  holding  a  two  or 
three  days'  meeting,  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating 
the  attention  of  the  people  to  the  all-important  sub 
ject  of  personal  holiness.  At  this,  there  were  strange 
manifestations.  The  people  were  seized  as  by  a  sort 
of  superhuman  power  ;  their  physical  energy  was 
lost ;  their  senses  refused  to  perform  their  functions ; 
all  forms  of  manifesting  consciousness  were  for  the 
time  annulled.  Strong  men  fell  upon  the  ground, 
utterly  helpless ;  women  were  taken  with  a  strange 
spasmodic  motion,  so  that  they  were  heaved  to  and 
fro,  sometimes  falling  at  length  upon  the  floor,  their 
hair  dishevelled,  and  throwing  their  heads  about 
with  a  quickness  and  violence  so  great  as  to  make 
their  hair  crack  against  the  floor  as  if  it  were  a  team 
ster's  whip.  Then  they  would  rise  up  again  under 
this  strange  power,  fall  on  their  faces,  and  the  same 
violent  movements  and  cracking  noise  would  ensue. 
Such  peculiarities  characterized  this  first  meeting. 

The  meetings  went  on,  and  at  length  there  was  a 
grand  convocation  at  Cane  Ridge,  Kentucky,  where 
the  leading  Presbyterian  minister  was  Barton  W. 
Stone,  afterward  renowned  in  the  ecclesiastical 
annals  of  the  "West,  as  the  father  and  head  of  those 
"  New  Lights  "  who  became  subsequently  followers 


358  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

of  Alexander  Campbell,  and  a  section  of  that  body 
now  called  "  Christian."  Stone  was  then  the  Pres 
byterian  minister  of  Concord  and  Cane  Kidge  meet 
ing-house.  He  appointed  a  sacramental  meeting. 
The  report  of  these  peculiar  doings  spread  so  rapidly 
through  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Virginia,  and  what  is 
now  Indiana,  that  people  came  sixty,  seventy,  a  hun 
dred,  even  three  hundred  miles  to  attend  this  meet 
ing,  and  it  is  said  that  on  one  night  there  were  not 
less  than  thirty  thousand  people  present  at  the  Cane 
Ridge  ground.  There  were  present  eight  or  ten 
preachers  of  different  denominations,  standing  up  on 
the  stumps  of  trees,  fallen  logs,  or  temporary  pul 
pits,  all  of  them  holding  forth  in  their  loudest  tone — 
and  that  was  a  very  loud  tone,  for  the  lungs  of  the 
backwoods  preachers  were  of  the  strongest.  They 
roared  like  lions — their  tones  were  absolutely  like 
peals  of  thunder.  The  celebrated  William  Burke, 
who  died  in  Cincinnati  only  a  short  time  ago,  was 
one  of  the  principal  orators  on  that  occasion.  lie 
had  not  been  treated,  he  thought,  with  courtesy  by 
his  Presbyterian  brethren.  He  had  arrived  on  the 
ground  on  Friday  night,  and  was  not  asked  to  par 
ticipate  in  any  of  the  exercises  on  Saturday.  Sunday 
morning  came,  and  many  friends  crowded  around 
him  to  know  if  he  were  going  to  preach.  He  said 
that  if  he  were  invited  he  would,  but  that 
he  had  not  been  invited.  Brother  Stone  wanted 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  359 

him  to  get  up,  and  make  an  expose  of  his  doctrines. 
"  My  doctrines,"  said  Burke,  "  I  preach  every  day," 
— this  he  said  with  a  good  deal  of  vim — "  they  are  in 
the  books — go  and  read.  If  I  am  to  make  an  expose 
of  Methodist  views,  then  you  might  be  called  upon 
for  yours."  Mr.  Stone  said  he  was  satisfied;  that 
that  would  do.  Burke,  however,  was  not  satisfied, 
and  as  he  was  not  asked  to  preach  by  the  authorities 
of  the  ground,  he  took  a  stand  on  his  own  hook,  a 
fallen  log,  and  here,  having  rigged  up  an  umbrella 
as  a  temporary  shelter,  a  brother  standing  by  to  see 
that  it  performed  its  functions  properly,  he  gave  out 
a  hymn,  and  by  the  time  that  he  had  mentioned  his 
text,  there  were  some  ten  thousand  persons  about 
him.  Although  his  voice  when  he  began  was  like  a 
crash  of  thunder,  after  three-quarters  of  an  hour  or 
an  hour,  it  was  like  an  infant's. 

It  is  said  that  all  these  people,  the  whole  ten  thou 
sand  of  men  and  women  standing  about  the  preacher, 
were  from  time  to  time  shaken  as  a  forest  by  a  tor 
nado,  and  five  hundred  were  at  once  prostrated  to 
the  earth,  like  the  trees  in  a  "  windfall,"  by  some 
invisible  agency.  Some  were  agitated  by  violent 
whirling  motions,  some  by  fearful  contortions;  and 
then  came  "the  jerks."  Scoffers,  doubters,  deniers, 
men  who  came  to  ridicule  and  sneer  at  the  superna 
tural  agency,  were  taken  up  in  the  air,  whirled  over 
upon  their  heads,  coiled  up  so  as  to  spin  about  like 


360  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

cart-wheels,  catching  hold,  meantime,  of  saplings, 
endeavoring  to  clasp  the  trunks  of  trees  in  their  arms, 
but  still  going  headlong  and  helplessly  on.  These 
motions  were  called  the  "  jerks  ;"  a  name  which  was 
current  in  the  "West  for  many  a  year  after ;  and  many 
an  old  preacher  has  described  these  things  accurately 
to  me.  It  was  not  the  men  who  wrere  already  mem 
bers  of  the  church,  but  the  scoffing,  the  blasphemous, 
the  profane,  who  w^ere  taken  in  this  way.  Here  is 
one  example :  A  man  rode  into  what  was  called  the 
"Ring  Circle,"  where  five  hundred  people  were 
standing  in  a  ring,  and  another  set  inside.  Those 
inside  were  on  their  knees,  crying,  shouting,  praying, 
all  mixed  up  in  heterogeneous  style.  This  man  comes 
riding  up  at  the  top  of  his  speed,  yelling  like  a 
demon,  cursing  and  blaspheming.  On  reaching  the 
edge  of  the  ring,  he  falls  from  his  horse,  seemingly 
lifeless,  and  lies  in  an  apparently  unconscious  con 
dition  for  thirty  hours ;  his  pulse  at  about  forty,  or 
less.  When  he  opens  his  eyes  and  recovers  his 
senses,  he  says  he  has  retained  his  consciousness  all 
the  time — that  he  has  been  aware  of  what  has  been 
passing  around — but  was  seized  with  some  agency 
which  he  could  not  define.  I  fancy  that  neither 
physiology,  nor  pyschology,  nor  biology,  nor  any  of 
the  ologies  or  isms,  have,  thus  far,  given  any  satisfac 
tory  explanation  of  the  singular  manifestations  that 
attended  this  great  revival. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  361 

These  meetings  taking  place  in  open  woods,  and 
attracting  such  immense  multitudes,  no  provision 
could  possibly  be  made  for  them  by  the  surrounding 
neighborhood.  People  came  in  their  carriages,  in 
wagons,  in  ox-carts,  on  horses,  and,  themselves  accus 
tomed  to  pioneer  habits  and  lives,  they  brought 
their  own  food,  commonly  jerked  meat  and  corn 
dodgers,  and  pitched  their  tents  upon  the  ground. 

Such  was  the  origin  of  camp-meetings.  The  first 
camp-meeting  ever  seen,  after  the  Feast  of  Taber 
nacles,  was  that  upon  the  Cane  Ridge,  where  the 
people  came  without  the  design  of  encamping,  but 
where  necessity  required  it.  These  meetings  pro 
ceeded  for  two  or  three  years,  and  great  was  the 
overthrow  which  resulted  to  all  forms  of  infidelity. 
Of  course  there  also  ensued  great  divisions  and 
heart-burnings  among  the  different  denominations. 
The  Baptist,  as  well  as  the  Presbyterian  and  Method 
ist  churches  largely  participated ;  and  all  these 
churches  were  split  up  more  or  less  after  the  abate 
ment  of  the  first  great  excitement.  A  good  many 
of  the  people  converted  in  these  meetings  became 
Shakers.  A  body  of  Shakers  who  came  from  Phila 
delphia  and  settled  in  Kentucky,  received  large 
recruits.  One  man,  who  had  gathered  about  him 
what  he  call  the  twelve  apostles,  set  off  in  search  of 
the  Holy  Land,  and  died  miserably  of  starvation  on 
an  island  in  the  Mississippi.  And  various  were  the 

16 


362  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEE3    AND   PEOPLE 

other  fancies.  One  said  lie  held  converse  with  the 
angels  and  spirits,  not  after  the  modern  use  of  rap 
ping  on  tables,  but  orally  and  immediately ;  and  that 
physical  food  was  not  absolutely  indispensable  to 
sustain  his  life.  He  also  starved  to  death  ;  and  then 
his  church  broke  up.  As  I  say,  there  were  various 
opinions  as  to  these  fruits  and  consequences ;  but  I 
have  been  told  by  old  men  who  have  watched  the 
current  of  affairs  since  then,  for  these  fifty-five  years, 
that  the  good  results  of  that  meeting  were  not  to  be 
calculated. 

I  now  come  to  a  more  particular  consideration  of 
some  of  the  men  concerned  in  this  movement.  The 
ministry  of  the  Methodist  church  of  the  wilderness 
assumed  the  position  and  the  responsibility  of  their 
calling,  under  the  confident  belief  that  each  man  of 
them  w^as  specially  called,  designated,  and  sent  forth 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  peace  and  power  as  an  ambassa 
dor  for  Christ.  The  churches  decided  upon  the  gifts 
and  graces  of  the  men  ;  settled,  according  to  their 
best  belief  and  conviction,  whether  the  call  be  a 
real  call.  If  their  opinion  coincided  with  his,  he  was 
then  set  apart  for  the  sacred  office  of  the  ministry, 
and  sent  forth.  At  the  time  of  which  I  speak,  he 
was  sent  forth  to  an  office  which  was  no  sinecure. 
His  field  of  labor  was  the  world.  The  allowance, 
the  limit  of  the  salary  which  the  discipline  of  the 
church  allowed  him  to  receive,  was  sixty-four  dollars 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  363 

per  annum,  and  that  was  to  include  all  presents  lie 
miglit  receive  of  yarn  stockings,  woollen  vests,  and 
homespun  coats,  together  with  wedding-fees.  What 
ever  he  might  receive,  from  whatsoever  quarter,  was 
to  be  counted  up  in  this  allowance  of  four-and-sixty 
dollars,  and  if  the  amount  exceeded  this,  the  sur 
plus  must  be  handed  over  to  the  church  authorities 
for  the  use  of  the  poorer  brethren.  Out  of  these 
sixty-four  dollars,  he  must  provide  a  horse,  saddle, 
wearing  apparel,  and  books.  "West  of  the  mountains 
sixty-four  dollars  was  a  sum  hardly  to  be  expected, 
either  in  silver  coin  of  the  realm,  or  in  presents  of 
any  description.  Nothing  more  was  allowed  a  man 
with  a  wife  than  without  a  wife,  for  it  was  under 
stood  among  the  ministers  of  the  old  church,  that  a 
preacher  had  no  business  with  a  wife,  and  that  he 
was  a  deal  better  "without  one.  The  practice  in  that 
respect  has  sadly  changed.  Mr.  Wesley  had  such  an 
experience  of  his  own  in  the  wife  line,  that  he  discou 
raged  marrying  among  the  brethren;  and  Francis 
Asbury,  who  was  the  master-spirit  of  Methodism  on 
this  continent,  was  so  absorbed  in  his  work,  so  en 
grossed  by  it,  that  he  discountenanced  matrimony. 
He  said,  nevertheless,  that  it  was  the  business  of 
every  living  man,  to  support  a  living  woman.  He 
therefore  gave  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  his  entire 
income,  which  was  very  small,  to  the  support  of  an 
old  woman,  a  distant  cousin  in  England  ;  and  when 


364  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

she  died,  he  appropriated  the  sum  to  the  support  of 
some  other  woman.  Further  than  that,  in  the  direc 
tion  of  matrimony,  he  never  went.  "When  one  of  the 
young  brethren  was  so  unfortunate  or  so  absurd  as  to 
link  himself  in  matrimonial  bonds,  it  was  understood 
that  he  had  better  "  locate,"  in  the  language  of  the 
church,  still  retaining  authority  to  preach,  but  pursu 
ing  some  other  calling  as  a  means  of  support,  and 
deriving  none  from  the  church.  He  retired  from 
regular  itinerant  work,  and  became  a  local  preacher. 
Thus  did  brother  Asbury  set  the  example  to  the 
younger  brethren.  McKendree,  who  was  his  succes 
sor  in  the  episcopate,  in  the  same  way  discounte 
nanced  all  interesting  relations  with  the  sisterhood. 

There  was  thus  small  encouragement,  indeed,  in 
the  way  of  pecuniary  support,  which  these  men  had 
to  look  forward  to.  They  were  coming  to  the  wilder 
ness  to  face  perils,  want,  weariness,  unkindness,  cold, 
and  hunger;  to  hear  the  crack  of  the  Indian  rifle 
from  some  neighboring  thicket,  to  feel  the  ball  cut 
ting  the  air  as  it  whizzed  past  their  ear,  and  perhaps 
to  fall  from  the  unerring  shot  of  some  skillful 
redskin.  And  if  their  lives  were  spared,  by  the 
guardianship  of  a  good  Providence,  or  the  interposi 
tion  of  his  special  care  in  their  behalf,  the  bare  earth 
in  winter  and  summer  was  three-fourths  of  the  time 
to  be  their  bed,  their  saddle  their  pillow,  and  the  sky 
their  coverlet.  They  labored  without  pecuniary 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  365 

compensation  or  support,  preaching  tlie  Gospel  often 
at  their  own  cost  and  charges ;  and  when  applying  for 
victuals  or  a  shelter,  often  and  often  were  they  sternly 
or  rudely  denied  it  by  a  brother  of  some  other  deno 
mination,  so  bitter  were  the  prevailing  feelings  of 
party  denominationalism.  Thus  they  worked  on, 
with  no  provision  for  their  advancing  years  except 
the  guardianship  of  the  Master  who  had  called  them 
—with  no  prospective  sunshine  of  affluence  to  cheer 
their  downward  path  to  the  grave — with  none  of  the 
comforts  of  this  world,  save  the  approval  of  their 
own  consciences  and  the  indwelling  testimony  of 
God's  Spirit.  Surely  such  an  office  was  not  a  sine 
cure  ;  and  men  who  could  make  a  respectable  living 
in  the  craft  of  blacksmithing,  farming,  carpentry, 
or  masonry,  could  hardly  have  gone  into  this  work, 
if  they  had  not  felt  the  irresistible  impulse  of  a  spe 
cial  call.  They  were  not,  as  a  general  thing,  men  of 
wThat  we  now  call  education.  Book  knowledge  was 
very  scant  with  them.  They  were  thorough  students 
of  their  Bibles ;  and  their  Bibles  they  generally  read 
upon  their  knees.  It  was  a  common  habit  with  them 
to  read  the  Good  Book  in  the  shelter  of  a  thicket,  or 
out  upon  the  lonely  prairie.  When  the  snow  was  on 
the  ground,  the  travelling  preacher,  awaking  from 
his  night's  slumber  as  the  first  rays  of  daylight  were 
breaking  through  the  eastern  sky,  giving  just  enough 
light  to  see  the  page  of  the  Sacred  Book,  would  sel- 


366  PIONEERS.    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

dom  saddle  and  mount  his  horse  till  lie  had  per 
formed  his  private  devotions,  kneeling  there  in  the 
midst  of  the  snow  and  ice  where  he  had  been  sleep 
ing;  would  seldom  proceed  upon  his  journey  till  he 
had  committed  his  way  and  commended  his  soul  to 
God,  and  had  studied,  at  least  three  or  four  chapters 
of  his  constant  companion  and  manual.  They  were 
diligent  students  of  the  holy  Scriptures,  and  they 
were  learned  in  hymns.  They  studied  the  hymn- 
book  nearly  as  devoutly  and  constantly  as  the  Bible ; 
and  with  these  two,  they  had  an  arsenal  from  which 
they  could  bring  forth  weapons  adapted  to  every 
emergency.  There  was  another  supplement  to  their 
Scriptures.  This  third  volume,  one  which  they  con 
stantly,  carefully,  devoutly  perused,  profoundly  stu 
died,  was  the  ever-open  volume  of  Human-  Nature . 
They  were  well  acquainted  with  men;  they  read 
their  eyes,  their  countenances,  their  hearts,  their  con 
sciences. 

From  this  analysis,  you  will  readily  conclude  what 
was  their  style  of  preaching.  They  were  earnest  and 
forcible  speakers.  They  felt  that  great  issues  were 
at  stake,  standing,  as  they  so  often  did,  before  a  con 
gregation  of  three  or  four  thousand.  They  felt  that 
all  this  great  company  of  men  and  women  in  a  little 
time  must  be  dead ;  that  perhaps  this  was  the  last 
time  they  should  ever  have  the  opportunity  of  speak 
ing  to  them.  The  weight  of  souls  was  on  them; 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  367 

they  felt  that  the  blood  of  these  people  might  rest  on 
their  own  souls,  unless  their  full  and  immediate  duty 
was  done  to  them ;  therefore,  most  earnestly,  and 
even  passionately  to  warn,  to  counsel,  to  entreat,  to 
admonish,  to  reprove,  to  win  them  by  the  love  of 
Christ  to  be  reconciled  to  God — this  was  the  burden 
of  their  preaching.  They  were  men  of  quick,  intense, 
and  profound  emotions,  of  lively  fancy,  and  vivid 
imaginations  ;  and  before  their  inward  eye  was  ever 
clearly  pictured  their  expected  final  haven  of  repose 
and  joy,  the  antithesis  to  this  their  present  painful 
life  of  weariness  and  labor.  And,  upon  the  other 
hand,  the  dark  and  unfathomable  abyss  of  perdition 
was  open  to  them. 

They  were  thorough  students  of  other  books  than 
the  Bible,  when  they  had  opportunity;  and  these 
were  frequently,  and  even  generally,  of  an  imagina 
tive  description.  Young  and  Milton  were  singularly 
intimate  companions  of  these  old  wayfarers.  Mil- 
tonic  descriptions  of  perdition  abounded  in  their 
preaching ;  and  the  Judgment,  with  all  the  solemn 
array  of  the  last  Assize,  was  vividly  delineated  before 
them.  And  while  to  our  sober,  cold,  and  calculating 
criticism,  it  might  seem  that  their  descriptions  of  the 
the  good  and  bad  world  savored  too  much  of  a  topo 
graphical  character — as  if  they  had  been  travelling 
through  certain  countries,  and  were  now  giving  a 
vivid  detail  of  all  they  had  experienced — while  it 


368  PIONEERS,    PREACHEK8    AND    PEOPLE 

might  seem  so  to  us,  it  did  not  to  the  people  who 
listened  to  them.  They  were  rude  and  ignorant  like 
them  ;  unversed  in  books.  They  were  stern  in  their 
denunciation  of  what  they  did  not  believe  ;  and  rose- 
water  sentimentalism,  agreeable  metaphysical  disqui 
sitions,  a  profoundly  elaborate  exegesis  upon  particu 
lar  passages  of  Scripture,  would  have  gone  but  little 
way  in  influencing  those  congregations  of  back 
woodsmen.  I  have  read  of  a  certain  bishop  who, 
on  a  text  concerning  the  miracles  at  the  Pool  of 
Bethesda,  said :  "  My  beloved  hearers,  I  shall  in  the 
first  place  speak  to  you  of  the  things  which  you 
know,  and  I  do  not  know ;  second,  of  what  I  know, 
and  you  do  not  know ;  third,  of  the  things  that 
neither  of  us  know."  There  was  another  eminent 
prelate,  who,  upon  reading  his  text,  said :  "  I  shall 
first  speak  of  the  chronology  of  the  subject,  then  its 
topography,  and  then  its  psychology."  Neither  of 
these  styles  of  preaching  would  have  gone  far  with 
the  backwoods  people.  Their  earnest  life,  filled  with 
necessities,  and  arduous  struggles  to  supply  them, 
must  have  appropriate  religious  food ;  and  these 
simple-hearted,  firmly-believing  preachers  were  just 
the  ones  to  give  it  to  them.  And  give  it  they  did, 
with  right  hearty  good  will. 

There  was  an  immense  deal  of  vim  and  stamina  in 
their  method.  They  spoke  loudly  and  with  their 
whole  body  ;  their  feet  and  hands  were  put  in  requi- 


OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  369 

sition  as  well  as  their  tongues  and  eyes.  It  was  a 
veiy  fierce,  cutting,  and  demonstrative  style  of 
preaching,  as  you  may  fancy.  With  little  opportu 
nities  to  get  up  splendid  discourses — for  they  had  no 
studies  but  the  woods,  and  no  libraries  but  those  of 
which  I  have  told  you — they  had  to  make  their  ser 
mons  as  they  were  travelling  along  the  way — and  a 
hard  and  rugged  way  it  often  was. 

Such  a  man  was  Bishop  Asbury,  to  my  mind  one 
of  the  most  important,  if  not  the  most  important  per 
sonage  in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  this  continent. 
"With  all  respect  to  Jonathan  Edwards,  Dr.  Dwight, 
Dr.  Channing,  and  all  the  other  eminent  and  pre 
eminent  men  of  JSTew  England — I  have  read  them, 
and  knew  some  of  them — I  think  that  Francis  As 
bury,  that  first  superintendent  and  bishop  of  our 
Methodist  church,  was  the  most  renowned  and  re 
doubtable  soldier  of  the  cross  that  ever  advanced 
the  standard  of  the  Lord  upon  this  continent. 
Yet  you  will  not  find  his  name  in  a  single  history  of 
the  United  States  that  I  know  of ;  and  it  is  a  burning 
shame  that  it  is  so.  He  travelled  for  fifty  years,  on 
horseback,  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  and  from  Massa 
chusetts  to  the  Far  West,  as  population  extended ; 
journeying  in  that  time,  as  was  computed,  about 
three  hundred  thousand  miles.  He  had  the  care  of 
all  the  churches;  was  preaching  instant  in  season 
and  out  of  season ;  was  laboring  indefatigably  with 

18* 


870  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

the  young  men  to  inspire  and  stimulate  them ;  winning 
back  the  lost  and  bringing  amorphous  elements  into 
harmony,  in  a  church  which,  when  he  began  with  it, 
in  1771,  numbered  probably  not  fifty  members  ;  and 
which,  when  he  was  an  old  man — he  died  in  1816 — 
numbered,  white  and  black,  from  Maine  to  California, 
and  from  far  northwestern  Oregon  to  sunny  southern 
Florida,  nearly  a  million  of  members.  So  vast  a 
church  did  Francis  Asbury  build,  almost  solely  by 
his  own  profound  wisdom,  untiring  effort,  and  cease 
less  devotion ;  and  he  did  as  much  for  building  school- 
houses  and  colleges,  erecting  churches,  establishing 
sound  views  of  morality,  and  lofty  purity  in  the  forms 
of  life ;  for  gathering  and  establishing  in  doctrine  and 
discipline  this  immense  body  of  Christians,  now 
the  most  numerous  in  the  country,  having  more  by 
one-third  of  stated  ministers,  and  more  colleges ;  than 
any  other  two  denominations  in  the  land.  That  one 
who  has  clone  this  should  not  have  had  his  name 
even  so  much  as  named  in  a  single  school  history  in 
the  United  States,  I  say  is  a  shame. 

This  man  was  surrounded  by  men  much  akin  to 
him ;  for  he  seemed  to  infuse  his  spirit  into  all  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact.  One  of  his  associates  and 
friends,  one  of  the  young  men  whom  he  raised  up, 
was  afterward  a  famous  preacher  of  eastern  Ten 
nessee — James  Axley,  a  very  renowned  man  in  his 
day;  and  another  was  James  Craven.  Many  of 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  371 

those  old  preachers  were  bitterly  opposed  to  whisky 
and  slavery.  Old  brother  Craven,  when  once  preach 
ing  in  the  heart  of  Virginia,  said,  "  Now  here  are  a 
great  many  of  you  professors  of  religion;  you  are 
sleek,  fat,  good-looking,  yet  there  is  something  the 
matter  with  you — you  are  not  the  thing  you  ought  to 
be.  Now  you  have  seen  wheat" — most  of  his 
hearers  were  farmers — "wheat  which  was  very 
plump,  round,  and  good-looking  to  the  eye ;  but  when 
you  weighed  it  you  found  it  only  came  to  forty-five 
or  forty-eight  pounds  to  the  bushel.  There  was 
something  the  matter.  It  should  be  from  sixty  to 
sixty-three  pounds.  Take  a  grain  of  that  wheat 
between  your  thumb  and  your  finger;  squeeze  it, 
and  out  pops  a  weevil.  Now,  you  good-looking 
Christian  people  only  weigh,  like  the  wheat,  forty- 
five  or  forty-eight  pounds  to  the  bushel.  What  is 
the  matter?  When,  you  are  squeezed  between  the 
thumb  of  the  law  and  the  finger  of  the  Gospel,  out 
pops  the  negro  and  the  whisky  bottle."  Old  father 
Axley,  preaching  on  one  occasion,  cried  out,  "  Ah, 
yes !  you  sisters  here  at  church  look  as  sweet  and 
smiling  as  if  you  were  angels  ;  and  one  of  you  says  to 
me,  c  Come  to  dinner,'  and  I  go ;  and  when  I  go,  you 
say '  Sit  down,  brother  Axley  awhile,  while  I  go  about 
the  dinner ;'  and  you  go  to  the  kitchen,  and  I  hear 
something  crying  out,  "  Don't,  Missus,"  and  I  hear 
the  sound  of  slaps,  and  the  poor  girl  screaming,  and 


61%  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

the  sister  whaling  and  trouncing  Sally  in  the  kitchen 
as  hard  as  she  can.  And  when  she  has  performed 
this  office,  she  comes  back  looking  as  sweet  and 
smiling  as  a  summer's  day,  as  if  she  had  been  saying 
her  prayers.  That  is  what  you  call  Christianity,  is 
it?"  It  was  in  this  way  that  these  old  preachers 
preached.  The  style  was  adapted  to  the  people. 
They  understood  this,  where  they  could  not  have  un 
derstood  profound  disquisitions  respecting  original 
sin.  This  old  brother  Axley  was  sent  in  1S06-7  into 
Attakapas  County,  Louisiana,  to  travel  there  as  a 
missionary.  He  was  about  five  feet  eight  inches 
in  height,  strong  and  sinewy,  accustomed  to  all  man 
ner  of  exposure  and  suffering.  Among  this  rude 
border  populace,  of  whom  a  large  component  are 
French  Catholics,  he  had  not  much  to  expect  in  the 
way  of  comfort.  He  had  no  money,  was  very  hungry, 
and  indeed  reduced  nearly  to  starvation,  when  he 
came  riding  up  to  a  plantation.  They  knew  him  by 
his  coat  to  be  a  preacher,  and  they  wanted  none  such 
in  their  houses.  The  old  gentleman  entered  and 
asked  if  he  could  have  a  dinner  and  supper  and 
night's  lodging. 

"  No." 

The  only  persons  present  were  a  widow  lady  and 
some  children  and  black  people. 

"  No,"  said  the  woman,  u  you  cannot ;  we  don't 
want  any  such  cattle  here." 


OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  373 

Here,  then,  was  a  prospect  of  sleeping  another 
night  out  in  the  cold.  He  had  nothing  to  eat,  and 
perhaps  he  ran  an  actual  risk  of  perishing  by  starva 
tion.  He  thought  of  the  lonely  journey,  and  of  the 
perils  that  compassed  it.  Then  his  faith  lifted  him 
to  the  better,  brighter  world  of  heaven,  its  rest  and 
reward  for  the  wayfarer ;  and  he  thought  of  the  good 
Father,  and  of  the  angels  that  are  sent  to  succor  and 
minister,  and  his  heart  presently  filled  with  overflow 
ing  gladness  ;  and  he  struck  up  a  hymn,  for  he  was 
a  great  singer.  These  men  were  all  great  singers, 
and  when  they  could  not  carry  a  point  by  speech, 
they  often  fell  back  upon  a  song : 

"  Peace,  my  soul !     Thou  needst  not  fear 
Thy  great  Provider  still  is  near, 
Who  fed  thee  last  will  feed  thee  still ! 
Be  still,  and  sink  into  his  will." 

He  went  on  with  his  song,  and, 'looking  about  him, 
saw  that  he  was  gaining  ground.  He  sang  three 
hymns,  and  by  that  time  the  woman  and  all  the  chil 
dren  and  negroes  were  crowding  to  hear  him,  with 
tears  in  their  eyes. 

As  he  concluded,  the  old  lady  shouted,  "  Pete,  put 
up  the  gentleman's  horse !  Girls,  have  a  good  sup 
per  for  the  preacher !"  And  thus  the  preacher  was 
lodged  and  fed  for  a  song. 

Axiey  came  to  Baltimore  to  attend  a  general  con- 


374  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND    PEOPLE 

ference  in  1820.  There  was  a  dispute  about  a  tech 
nical  question — whether  presiding  elders  should  be 
elected  by  preachers  or  not ;  and  there  had  been  a 
great  deal  of  warm,  not  to  say  hot  discussion  about 
it.  Brother  Axley  was  silent.  He  did  not  say  a 
word,  until  at  the  end  of  the  session,  the  bishop 
called  upon  him  to  offer  a  prayer.  He  knelt  to  lead 
the  devotions,  and  began  thus  :  "  Now,  O  Lord,  thou 
knowest  what  a  time  we  have  had  discussing,  argu 
ing,  about  this  elder  question ;  and  thou  knowest 
what  our  feelings  are ;  we  do  not  care  what  becomes 
of  the  team — it  is  only  who  drives  the  oxen." 

He  used  the  directest  mode  of  getting  to  the  centre 
of  a  subject.  He  preached  among  a  people  who  were 
sharpshooters,  and  who  practised  driving  a  nail  with 
their  rifles  at  fifty  yards.  And  as  they  practised 
close  and  sharp-shooting  with  the  rifle,  so  did  he  with 
his  tongue. 

There  is  an  old  friend  of  mine,  my  first  presiding 
elder,  yet  living  in  Illinois — Peter  Cartwright — who 
was  one  of  those  old  preachers  in  the  West,  and  has 
many  of  their  peculiarities.  I  may  give  you  one 
incident  of  this  man's  life,  as  a  specimen  of  their 
physical  courage  and  prowess ;  for  it  was  sometimes 
necessary  for  them  to  fight  with  carnal  weapons,  and 
many  of  them  had  obstinate  combats  with  the  rough 
pioneer  people — and  commonly  carne  off  victorious. 
Gartwright,  in  common  with  most  of  those  early  old 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  375 

preachers,  was  a  strong  opponent  of  slavery.  JSTow 
the  question  was  being  canvassed  in  Illinois,  between 
1818  and  1823,  whether  this  institution  should  be 
ingrafted  upon  the  Constitution,  when  the  State  was 
applying  for  admission  into  the  Union.  The  old 
gentleman  resolved  to  remove  to  Illinois,  and  take  a 
hand  in  the  quarrel.  He  had  been  living  in  Ken 
tucky  and  Tennessee,  and  had  preached  there  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  when  he  was  appointed  to  Illi 
nois  as  presiding  elder,  and  had  a  circuit  from 
Galena  on  .the  northwest,  to  Shawnee-town  on  the 
south — a  district  nearly  as  great  as  the  entire  country 
of  England.  Around  this  he  was  to  travel  once  in 
three  months,  at  a  time  when  there  were  no  roads, 
scarcely  a  bridge  or  ferry — and  keep  his  regular 
appointments  to  preach,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  besides 
attending  love-feasts,  and  administering  the  sacra 
ments.  Then,  after  preaching  on  the  Sunday,  he 
would  generally  announce  a  stump  speech  for  the 
Monday,  and  call  upon  his  fellow-citizens  to  come 
and  hear  the  question  discussed,  whether  slavery 
should  be  admitted  or  not.  Of  course,  taking  a  poli 
tical  side,  he  was  regarded  as  a  politician,  and  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  angry  feeling  about  the  old 
preacher.  On  one  occasion,  he  rode  to  a  ferry  upon 
the  Sangamon  River  ;  the  country  about  was  rather 
thickly  populated,  and  he  found  a  crowd  of  people 
about  the  ferry,  which  seemed  to  be  a  sort  of  gather- 


3T6  PIOXEERS,    PBEACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

ing  place  for  discussing  politics.  The  ferryman,  a  great 
herculean  fellow,  was  holding  forth  at  the  top  of  his 
voice  about  an  old  renegade,  one  Peter  Cartwright, 
prefixing  a  good  many  adjectives  to  his  name  and 
declaring  that  if  he  ever  came  that  way  he  would 
drown  him  in  the  river. 

Cartwright,  who  was  unknown  to  any  one  there, 
now  coming  up,  said :  "  I  want  you  to  put  me  across." 

"  You  can  wait  till  I  am  ready,"  said  the  ferry 
man. 

Cartwright  knew  it  was  of  no  use  to  complain ;  and 
the  ferryman,  when  he  had  got  through  his  speech, 
signified  his  readiness  to  take  him  over.  The 
preacher  rode  his  horse  into  the  boat,  and  the  ferry 
man  commenced  to  row  across.  All  Cartwright 
wanted  was  fair  play ;  he  wished  to  make  a  public  ex 
hibition  of  this  man,  and,  moreover,  was  glad  of  an 
opportunity  to  state  his  principles.  About  half  way 
over,  therefore,  throwing  his  bridle  over  the  stake  on 
one  side  of  the  boat,  he  told  the  ferryman  to  lay 
down  his  pole. 

"  What's  the  matter  ?"  asked  the  man. 

"  Well,"  said  he,  "  you  have  just  been  using  my 
name  improper,  and  saying  that  if  I  ever  came  this 
way,  you  would  drown  me  in  the  river.  I'm  going 
to  give  you  a  chance." 

"  Are  you  Peter  Cartwright  2" 

"Yes." 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  377 

And  the  ferryman,  nothing  loath,  pulls  in  his  pole, 
and  at  it  they  go.  They  grapple  in  a  minute,  and 
Cartwright  being  very  agile  as  well  as  athletic,  suc 
ceeds  in  catching  him  by  the  nape  of  the  neck  and 
the  slack  of  the  breeches,  and  whirls  him  over.  He 
souses  him  down  under  the  tide,  while  the  compa 
nions  of  the  vanquished  ferryman  look  on.  the  dis 
tance  insuring  fair  play.  Cartwright  souses  him 
under  again,  and  raising  him,  says  :  "  I  baptize  thee 
in  the  name  of  the  Devil,  whose  child  thou  art." 
He  thus  immerses  him  thrice,  and  then  drawing  him 
up  again,  inquires :  "  Did  you  ever  pray  ?" 

"No,"  answered  the  ferryman,  strangling  and 
choking  and  dripping  in  a  pitiful  manner. 

"  Then  it's  time  you  did,"  says  Cartwright ;  "  I'll 
teach  you :  say  *  Our  Father  who  art  in  Heaven.'  " 

"  I  won't,"  says  the  ferryman. 

Down  he  goes  under  water  again,  for  quite  a  time. 
Then  lifting  him  out,  "  "Will  you  pray,  now  ?" 

The  poor  ferryman,  nearly  strangled  to  death, 
wanted  to  gain  time,  and  to  consider  the  terrors. 

"  Let  me  breathe  and  think,"  he  said. 

"  No,"  answers  the  relentless  preacher,  "  I  won't ; 
I'll  make  you,"  and  he  immerses  him  again.  At 
length  he  draws  him  out,  and  asks  a  third  time, 
"  "Will  you  pray  now  ?" 

"I  will  do  anything,"  was  the  subservient  answer. 
So  Cartwright  made  him  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer. 


378  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

"  JSTow  let  me  up,"  demanded  this  unwilling  convert. 

"  No,"  says  Cartwright,  "  not  yet.  Make  me  three 
promises  :  that  you  will  repeat  that  prayer  every 
morning  and  night ;  that  you  will  put  every  Metho 
dist  preacher  across  this  ferry  free  of  expense ;  and 
that  you  will  go  to  hear  every  one  that  preaches 
within  five  miles,  henceforth." 

The  ferryman,  all  helpless,  barely  alive  and  tho 
roughly  cowed,  promised ;  and  Cartwright  went  on 
his  way. 

That  ferryman  joined  the  church  afterward,  and 
became  quite  an  eminent  and  useful  member. 

Peter  Cartwright,  I  say,  was  my  own  presiding 
elder.  This  is  a  veracious  story ;  and  I  might  go  on 
for  pages  giving  you  anecdotes  of  these  Methodists, 
their  peculiar  powers,  their  odd  original  ways,  their 
methods,  their  perils,  and  their  success.  They  were 
an  urgent  sort  of  people:  very  pressing,  deadly  in 
earnest — their  souls  were  firmly  convinced  of  the 
truth  of  what  they  were  saying — there  was  no  eva 
sion,  equivocation,  or  doubt  about  it ;  they  therefore 
spoke  straight  to  the  mark,  and  did  what  they  had  to 
do.  They  had  their  faults  and  their  defects,  no 
doubt.  Who  has  not  ?  Doubtless  they  may  have 
been  lacking  in  niceties  and  elegances — the  refine 
ments  and  beauties  of  civilized  society ;  but  they 
were  adapted  to  their  condition  and  exactly  filled 
their  station.  It  is  much  the  practice  to  ridicule 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  379 

ministers  of  the  Gospel ;  to  treat  them  decently  as  it 
were  out  of  pity,  as  debilitated  beings,  half-way  be 
tween  women  and  children — with  a  kind  of  conde 
scension  and  patronage.  And  the  question  is  often 
asked,  with  what  is  meant  to  be  tremendous  em 
phasis  and  overpowering  sarcasm,  "  "What  have  the 
ministers  done ;  and  what  are  they  doing  now  ?"  I 
beg  leave  to  say  in  their  behalf  that  they  ask  neither 
patronage  nor  condescension ;  neither  compassion  nor 
pity.  They  are  able  to  do  their  own  work,  and  have 
done  it ;  and  if  your  country  along  this  Atlantic  sea 
board  fails  to  furnish  abundant  and  superabundant 
evidence  of  their  possession  of  the  noblest  elements 
of  the  ministerial  character — sublime  courage,  indo 
mitable  energy,  daring  self-forgetfulness,  lofty,  ar 
dent,  absorbing,  and  efficient  Christian  piety — then  I 
say  go  west  of  the  mountains,  and  in  those  noble 
pioneers  who  bore  to  the  starving  and  perishing  mul 
titudes  in  the  wilderness  the  means  of  grace — who 
hastened  when  most  need  was,  not  waiting  for  mere 
human  helps,  bringing  manna,  such  as  was  at  hand, 
and  amply  sufficient  for  spiritual  food,  here  and  here 
after — go  and  find  among  them  some  of  the  sublimest 
elements  of  human  character  that  this  or  any  other 
country  ever  furnished.  These  constitute  a  most  com 
plete  and  unanswerable  refutation  of  the  mean,  and 
base,  and  slanderous  insinuations  which  are  so  unhap 
pily  current  throughout  a  large  portion  of  our  society. 


380  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

Perhaps  I  cannot  more  appropriately  conclude  this 
lecture  than  by  giving  a  hasty  summary  of  the  life 
and  character  of  one  of  the  more  prominent  of  the 
early  western  preachers ;  and  for  the  same  natural 
reason  already  alleged,  my  instance  will  be  taken 
from  among  those  of  the  Methodist  denomination. 

Of  Bishop  Asbury  I  have  barely  spoken,  and  of 
his  abundant  labors.  That  mere  mention  must  on 
this  occasion  suffice. 

Peter  Cartwright,  also  already  alluded  to,  a  man 
yet  enjoying  a  green  and  vigorous  and  useful  old  age, 
and  one  of  the  most  characteristic  and  efficient  of  the 
western  pioneer  preachers,  was  born  in  Amherst 
County,  Virginia,  in  1785,  the  son  of  a  Revolutionary 
soldier;  was  taken  to  Kentucky  by  his  parents  a 
few  years  afterward,  when  they  settled  there ;  and 
was  brought  up  in  Logan  County,  a  district  so  wild, 
wicked,  and  infested  with  desperadoes  and  refugee 
criminals,  as  to  be  popularly  known  in  that  region  as 
"  Rogues'  Harbor."  A  strong,  active,  sharp-witted, 
jovial  young  fellow,  he  grew  up  a  horse-racer  and 
gambler,  in  embryo  at  least,  and  went  on  until  he 
was  sixteen,  in  the  high  road  to  all  the  vices  of  that 
rude  and  lawless  period  and  community.  Then  he 
was  suddenly  converted,  with  one  of  the  inexplicable 
."*  convulsive  changes  which  we  hardly  dare  consider  or 
seek  to  analyze,  lest  on  one  hand  we  find  delusion,  or 
on  the  other  prove  deficient  in  reverence  for  the  ope- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  381 

rations  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  sold  his  race-horse, 
burned  his  cards,  fasted  and  prayed,  read  the  Bible, 
and  after  laboring  under  fearful  anguish  for  months, 
at  last,  at  one  of  the  numerous  camp-meetings  held 
in  consequence  of  the  great  gathering  at  Cane  Ridge, 
found  peace  in  believing,  by  another  revulsion  as  sud 
den  as  that  which  had  plunged  him  into  an  agony  of 
remorse  and  dread  three  months  before.  He  joined 
the  Methodist  church  in  1801 ;  that  body  then  num 
bering,  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  about  two  thousand 
five  hundred  souls,  all  told.  It  contained  in  1787 
just  about  ninety -five  souls.  Now  it  contains,  within 
the  same  territorial  limits,  not  less  than  three  quar 
ters  of  a  million. 

Cartwright  was  licensed  as  an  exhorter  in  1802, 
and  as  a  preacher  six  years  afterward.  From  that 
time  until  this,  for  more  than  fifty  years,  he  has  been 
a  steadfast  and  most  efficient  laborer  in  his  chosen 
field.  The  brief  summary  which  he  gives  in  his  auto 
biography — one  of  the  most  entertaining  books  ever 
written — of  the  totals  of  his  work,  may  be  condensed 
somewhat  as  follows :  His  entire  loss  by  non-receipt 
of  the  regular  Methodist  allowance — formerly  eighty 
dollars  a  year,  all  over  that  sum  to  be  handed  over 
to  the  church — and  by  robbery,  casualties,  etc., 
$6,000  ;  extras  received  to  offset  against  this,  $2,000 ; 
amount  of  money  given  in  charity,  etc.,  $2,300 ; 
number  received  into  the  church,  10,000 ;  number 


582  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

baptized,  children  and  adults,  12,000 ;  funeral  ser 
mons  preached,  500  ;  total  number  of  sermons 
preached,  at  least  14,600. 

The  crowded  years  of  this  long  and  busy  life  were 
marked  from  week  to  week  with  the  strangest  occur 
rences,  the  natural  results  of  the  wild  unfettered 
thoughts  and  life  of  the  West ;  often  most  grotesque 
and  at  first  sight  coarse,  and  even  ridiculous,  silly 
or  absurd  to  an  eastern  man  ;  and  yet  requiring  but 
a  brief  consideration  to  discover  how  peculiarly  fj,t 
and  proper  were  the  rough  repartees  and  even  the 
comical  tricks,  practical  jokes,  and  ready  physical 
force  with  which  this  hardy  soldier  of  the  church 
militant  upheld  his  authority,  or  silenced  his  oppo 
nents  at  camp-meetings,  or  in  controversy  with  the 
ignorant  fanatics,  the  deceivers,  and  the  rabid  secta 
rians  of  his  rugged  field. 

When  a  Baptist  preacher  was  drawing  off  his  con 
verts,  he  drove  him  away  by  joining  his  band  of 
believers  in  character  of  a  Christian,  and  then  at  the 
place  of  immersion  confounding  him  by  suddenly 
leaving  him  the  alternative  of  admitting  him  into 
the  church  unimmersed,  or  taking  the  responsibility 
of  denying  him  Christian  fellowship  unless  rebaptized. 

His  old-fashioned  Methodist  hatred  for  fashionable 
ornaments  comes  quaintly  out  in  his  story  of  a  rich 
man,  who  could  not  find  peace  in  believing  until  he 
had  torn  off  his  shirt-ruffles  and  thrown  them  down 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  £O£ 

in  the  straw  at  the  camp-meeting ;  after  which,  "  in 
less  than  two  minutes  God  blessed  his  soul,  and  he 
sprang  to  his  feet,  loudly  praising  God !" 

A  "  book-learned  "  minister  once  tried  to  confound 
him  by  addressing  him  in  Greek.  "With  ready  wit 
he  listened,  as  if  intelligently,  and  replied  at  some 
length  in  the  backwoods  German,  which  he  had 
learned  in  his  youth,  which  the  other  took  for 
Hebrew,  and  was  confounded.  And  the  old  man 
proceeds  to  compare  the  educated  preachers  he  had 
seen  to  a  "  gosling  with  the  straddles." 

The  camp-meetings  were  almost  always  infested  by 
rowdies,  who  often  organized  under  a  captain  and 
did  all  in  their  power  to  break  up  the  exercises  by 
noise,  personal  violence,  liquor-selling  and  drinking, 
riotous  conduct,  stealing  horses  and  wagons,  and  all 
manner  of  annoyances.  Once  Cartwright  blocked 
their  game  by  appointing  their  captain  himself  to  the 
business  of  preserving  order.  Again,  the  captain  of 
the  rowdies  was  struck  down  among  the  "  mourners  " 
just  as  he  had  come  quietly  up  to  hang  a  string 
of  frogs  round  the  preacher's  neck.  Once  he  con 
fronted  their  chief  with  a  club,  knocked  him  off  his 
horse,  and  as  his  discouraged  companions  fled,  se 
cured  him  and  had  him  fined  fifty  dollars.  Once  he 
captured  the  whisky  which  the  rowdies  were  drink 
ing,  and  when  they  came  up  at  night  to  stone  the 
the  preacher's  tent,  he  had  already  been  among  them 


384:  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

in  disguise  and  learned  their  plan,  and  singly  drove 
them  all  off  with  a  sudden  sharp  volley  of  pebbles. 

Again,  he  sent  a  liquor-seller  to  jail  for  selling  on  the 
camp-ground,  had  himself  and  four  bold  friends  sum 
moned  by  the  timid  officer  as  a  posse,  and  never  left 
the  culprit  until  he  had  paid  fine  and  costs;  and 
when  the  enraged  rowdies  undertook  to  beat  up  the 
preacher's  quarters  at  night,  he  drove  off  one  of  their 
leaders  by  hitting  him  a  violent  blow  with  a  "  chunk 
of  fire,"  and  another  with  a  smart  stroke  on  the  head 
with  a  club,  which  drove  out  his  "  dispensation  of 
mischief."  At  another  time,  he  had  himself  and  five 
stout  men  summoned  by  a  frightened  peace-officer, 
secured  a  whisky-seller  who  had  been  rescued  by  his 
fellows,  then  took  the  deputy-sheriff,  who  would 
have  ordered  the  prisoner  released,  and  seizing  thir 
teen  more  of  the  mob,  had  them  all  fined,  or  made 
to  give  security  on  an  appeal.  One  more  whisky- 
dealer,  who  kept  a  loaded  musket  by  him,  the 
shrewd  and  fearless  Cartwright  secured  by  night  in 
his  own  wagon,  scared  him  handsomely,  fired  off  his 
musket,  threw  away  his  powder,  and  drove  him 
away,  beaten  and  ashamed. 

Discussing  doctrines  with  a  boastful  Baptist  pres 
byter,  he  silenced  him  with  a  question  witty  and  inge 
nious,  whether  its  implication  is  true  or  not,  viz. : 
"  If  there  are  no  children  in  hell,  and  all  young 
children  who  die  go  to  heaven,  is  not  that  church 


OF   THE    MISSISSIPPI.  385 

which   has   no   children  in   it   more   like  hell  than 
heaven  ?" 

Coming  to  a  new  circuit,  he  found  at  his  first 
appointment  but  one  solitary  hearer,  and  he  a  one- 
eyed  man ;  but  preached  his  very  best  to  him  for 
three-quarters  of  an  hour.  At  his  next  coming,  this 
hearer  had  so  sounded  his  praises  that  he  had  a  large 
attendance,  and  a  great  revival  followed. 

When  a  certain  woman  used  to  disturb  his  class- 
meetings,  he  hoisted  her  out  of  doors  by  main  force, 
and  then  held  the  door  shut  by  standing  inside  with 
his  back  to  it,  while  he  went  on  with  the  exercises. 
When  a  fat  and  unbelieving  old  lady  troubled  him 
at  camp-meeting  by  kicking  her  daughters  as  they 
knelt  to  pray  among  the  "  mourners,"  he  caught  her 
dexterously  by  the  foot  and  tipped  her  over  back 
ward  among  the  benches,  where  she  bustled  about  a 
long  time  to  get  up,  because  of  her  size,  while  the 
victorious  preacher  went  straight  011  with  his  exhort 
ing.  There  was  a  dance  at  an  inn  where  he  stopped, 
and  no  room  to  sit  in  but  the  ball-room.  A  young 
girl  politely  asked  him  to  dance  with  her.  He  led 
her  out  on  the  floor,  and  as  the  fiddler  was  about  to 
strike  up,  said  to  the  company  that  it  was  his  custom 
to  ask  God's  blessing  on  all  undertakings,  and  he 
would  do  this  now.  Instantly  dropping  on  his  knees, 
he  pulled  his  partner  down  too,  and  prayed  until 
the  fiddler  fled  in  fright,  and  some  of  the  dancers 

17 


386  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

wept  or  cried  for  mercy ;  then  proceeded  to  exhort 
and  sing  hymns,  and  did  not  cease  his  labors  until  he 
he  had  organized  a  Methodist  church  of  thirty-two 
members,  and  made  the  landlord  class-leader. 

A  grey-haired  old  man,  a  Baptist,  whose  custom  it 
was  to  do  so,  once  interrupted  the  amusing  stories  he 
was  dealing  out  to  his  congregation,  by  calling  out 
sternly,  "  Make  us  cry,  make  us  cry ;  don't  make  us 
laugh  !"  With  equal  sternness,  and  turning  short 
and  sharp  upon  him,  Cartwright  instantly  answered, 
"  I  don't  hold  the  puckering  strings  of  your  mouths, 
and  I  want  you  to  mind  the  negro's  eleventh  com 
mandment,  and  that  is,  c  Every  man  mind  his  own 
business.' ':  The  abashed  old  man  was  silent. 

While  Cartwright  was  candidate  for  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Illinois,  he  sought  out  a  man  who  had  spread 
a  slanderous  story  that  he  had  tried  to  escape  paying 
a  note,  by  perjury.  Finding  him  in  a  public  place  in 
a  crowd,  he  told  him  to  acknowledge  his  falsehood 
there  and  then,  or  he  would  "  sweep  the  streets  with 
him  to  his  heart's  content."  The  coward  acknow 
ledged  his  lie ;  and  if  he  had  not,  the  fearless  preacher 
would  surely  have  chastised  him  as  he  promised. 
"While  he  wras  in  the  House,  afterward,  an  enraged 
opponent  threatened  to  knock  him  down  if  he  finished 
a  certain  course  of  remark.  Cartwright  finished  it, 
and  when  the  House  adjourned,  marched  straight  up 
to  him  and  asked  him  if  he  was  for  peace  or  war  ? 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  387 

"  Oh,  for  peace,"  was  the  answer ;  "  come  home  and 
take  tea  with  me."  So  they  went,  arm  in  arm ;  and 
when  the  company,  including  the  governor  and  his 
wife,  were  about  to  eat  without  asking  a  blessing, 
Cartwright  said  plainly,  "  Governor,  ask  a  blessing." 
The  official  blushed,  apologized,  and  requested  the 
preacher  to  do  it,  which  he  did. 

He  once  had  a  discussion  with  an  infidel,  who 
ruled  the  Bible  out  of  evidence ;  to  which  Cartwright 
submitted,  and  in  his  turn  would  have  ruled  Tom 
Paine  out.  And  when  his  adversary  flew  into  a  rage 
at  this,  and  cursed  and  blasphemed,  the  preacher  in 
his  turn  filled  with  righteous  wrath,  seized  him  by 
the  head  and  jaw,  and  rattled  his  teeth  together  like 
so  many  pebbles.  The  angry  man  would  have  struck 
him,  but  was  prevented,  and  afterward  became  his 
friend. 

But  the  time  would  fail  me  to  relate  the  innumer 
able  singular  experiences  of  this  wonderful  old  man. 
Such  as  he  are  the  real  pioneers  of  Methodism  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley ;  strong,  fearless,  active,  ready, 
quick-witted,  jovial,  even  humorous  and  jocular, 
rough,  as  able  as  the  best  in  a  free  fight,  yet  kindly, 
pure,  sensible,  fatherly,  benevolent,  unwearied  in 
self-sacrifice  and  well-doing;  wise  in  counsel,  tho 
roughly  practical,  yet  the  personification  of  idealists 
in  their  prompt  appreciation  of  whatever  was  proper 
for  their  use,  whether  fashionable  or  not ;  often  set  in 


388  PIONEERS,    PKEACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

some  narrow  prejudice  and  bitterly  sectarian,  yet 
broad  and  liberal  in  views  of  church,  government, 
and  showing  and  wielding  with  effect  all  the  quali 
ties  which  constitute  rulers  of  men.  And  above  all, 
filled  and  overflowing  wTith  the  love  of  Christ  and  the 
ardent  desire  to  save  souls.  Such  were  Peter  Cart- 
wright  and  his  noble  brethren  of  the  early  church  of 
the  wilderness. 

I  might  occupy  pages  in  commemorating  the  noble 
and  admirable  qualities  of  others  of  the  great  Metho 
dist  leaders  ;  of  Henry  B.  Bascom,  the  young  Apollo 
of  the  "West,  the  lofty  orator,  and  noble  useful  Christ 
ian  and  minister ;  of  the  veteran  preacher  James  B. 
Finley ;  of  many  others  of  the  great  army  of  devoted 
men,  some  now  gone  to  their  last  account,  some  yet 
living  and  laboring  among  us — still  at  work  within 
my  own  beloved  church.  But  I  must  close.  Whole 
volumes  have  already  been  written  upon  the  lives  of 
Cartwright,  Bascom,  Finley,  and  others.  It  would 
be  presumptuous  and  useless  to  attempt  more  in  this 
place  than  this  passing  allusion. 


Lecture    IX. 


ITS  MANIFESTATIONS, 
ELOQUENCE     AND     HUMOE. 


WESTERN   MIND: 

ITS  MANIFESTATIONS,  ELOQUENCE  AND  HUMOR. 

THE  query  was  propounded  in  the  "Edinburgh  Re 
view  ''  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  "  Who 
reads  an  American  book  ?"  The  question  has  been 
often  asked,  both  on  this  and  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  why  have  we  not  an  American  litera 
ture  ?  I  should  now  hardly  be  willing  to  concede 
that  we  have  not.  It  would  be  a  strangely  ignorant 
or  prejudiced  Englishman  who  would  pretend  that 
we  had  not.  And  yet  it  would  not  be  strange  if  we 
had  not.  The  demands  upon  American  mind  have 
been  of  too  pressing  and  urgent  a  character  to  allow 
it  to  devote  much  time  or  attention  to  the  specific 
pursuit  of  letters.  Here  was  a  continent  to  subdue  ; 
a  wilderness  to  be  reclaimed ;  mountains  to  be 
scaled ;  lakes,  oceans  and  gulfs  to  be  joined  together ; 
and  meantime  the  supplies  for  daily  necessity  and 
daily  consumption  to  be  raised,  and  conveyed  to  mar 
ket.  Men  must  have  bread  before  books.  Men 
must  build  barns  before  they  establish  colleges.  Men 
must  learn  the  language  of  the  rifle,  the  axe  and  the 

391 


392  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

plough,  before  they  learn  the  lessons  of  Grecian  and 
Roman  philosophy  and  history ;  and  to  those  pur 
suits  was  the  early  American  intellect  obliged  to 
devote  itself,  by  a  sort  of  simple  and  hearty  and  con 
stant  consecration.  There  was  no  possibility  of 
escape  ;  no  freedom  or  exemption  from  this  obliga 
tion.  The  early  settlers  had  to  solve  the  imperative 
instant  questions  of  present  wrant;  problems  that 
were  urging  themselves  upon  their  attention  with 
every  day,  and  with  every  recurring  season.  When 
the  forest  is  felled,  and  the  soil  is  turned,  and  the 
granaries  are  established,  and  the  mouths  of  wives 
and  little  ones  filled,  and  their  bodies  clad,  then  may 
American  intellect  betake  itself  to  the  study  and  mak 
ing  of  books. 

These  remarks  apply  to  the  sea-board  here,  as  much 
as  to  the  interior.  We  are  comparatively  a  young  peo 
ple.  Agriculture,  commerce,  manufactures — the  earli 
est  practical  problems  of  society — though  now  in  some 
what  more  developed  forms,  must  still  be  studied. 
And  if  this  is  true  of  the  country  east  of  the  moun 
tains,  how  much  more  emphatically  and  peculiarly 
is  it  true  of  that  west  of  the  mountains !  The  for 
mer  is  an  old  country  in  comparison  with  the  latter. 
The  earliest  settlers  of  our  race  established  them 
selves  there  only  in  1770 — only  ninety  years  ago — a 
brief  space  in  a  nation's  life.  And  howr  vast  and  vari 
ous  were  the  tasks  which  at  once  presented  them- 


OF   THE  MISSISSIPPI.  393 

selves  to  the  few  settlers,  demanding  instant  and 
constant  fulfillment,  and  threatening  death  if  ne 
glected.  A  boundless  territory,  to  which  the  land 
lying  east  of  the  mountains  is  scarce  more  than  a  drop 
in  the  bucket,  was  to  be  wrested  by  sturdy  and  long- 
continued  labor  from  the  dominion  of  nature,  freed 
from  savage  beasts,  and  made  the  cultivated  fruitful 
home  of  civilized  society.  Tillable  and  arable  fields, 
homes,  gardens,  towns,  were  all  to  be  acquired  by  a 
series  of  laborious  victories  over  the  unresisting,  yet 
opposing  forces  of  nature. 

Again :  the  men  who  did  this  must  also  maintain 
and  cultivate  and  protect  the  structure  of  social  life, 
by  framing  something — whether  rude  or  elaborate 
matters  not  BO  much — but  something  in  the  nature  of 
a  body  of  laws,  and  a  system  of  government.  The 
crude  and  scanty  means  of  educating  the  young  and 
preaching  the  Gospel  were  also  to  be  afforded  ;  but  I 
need  only  mention  them. 

And  still  further  :  all  this  had  to  be  done  in  the 
presence  of  a  class  of  perils  dreadful  beyond  anything 
conceivable  by  the  citizens  who  now  dwelt  so  securely 
under  the  shadow  of  strong  municipal  and  State  or 
ganizations,  and  whose  very  recital  makes  the  flesh 
creep,  and  the  blood  run  cold.  I  mean  the  Indian 
and  British  hostilities,  which  were  so  long  such  a  ter 
rible  and  incessant  drain  upon  the  vigor  and  the 
very  life-blood  of  the  infant  western  common- 

17* 


394:  PIONEEKS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

wealths.  Such  requirements  drew  heavily  upon  all 
the  functions  of  body,  mind  and  heart ;  chiefly  how 
ever  upon  the  first.  For  the  first  task  of  a  new  na 
tion,  as  I  have  shown,  is  for  the  muscles  and  sinews. 
Only  when  this  is  fulfilled  comes  the  demand  upon  the 
brain  and  upon  the  soul. 

But  the  western  people  have  been  steadily  rising 
in  the  path  thus  indicated,  for  many  years.  In  com 
mon  with  the  older  communities  east  of  the  moun 
tains,  they  have  been  rising  and  advancing  in  the 
pilgrimage  of  humanity,  up  from  the  region  of  mus 
cular  development  and  animal  activity,  to  that  of 
intellectual  and  moral  culture.  Such  progress  can 
never  be  rapid.  Life's  great  tasks  are  not  achieved 
in  a  hurry.  Personal  culture  is  the  work  of  time ; 
and  it  is  only  in  him  who  descends  from  a  line  of 
cultivated  ancestors,  that  the  highest  exhibition  of 
human  attainments,  ordinarily  speaking,  is  possible. 
Much  more  is  this  true  of  a  race — of  a  nation. 

Around  the  early  settler  lay  the  broad  shadows 
of  the  primeval  forests.  Beneath  him  was  the  rich 
turf  that  had  never  been  disturbed  by  a  coulter ;  and 
around  him  the  solemn  primeval  groves  that  had 
never  reverberated  to  the  sound  of  the  axe — where 
only  the  deafening  yell  of  the  savage  war-whoop  had 
disturbed  the  silence,  and  where  only  the  dreadful 
carnage  of  savage  warfare  had  discolored  the  soil.  He 
possessed  broad  streams,  matchless  in  beauty,  and  a 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  395 

soil  rich  beyond  measure ;  vacant ;  only  awaiting 
occupancy;  and  returning  the  largest  product  and 
profit  to  the  tiller's  energy  and  industry.  In  this 
lovely  country,  cabin  homes  were  to  be  erected,  and 
the  forms  of  social  and  civil  organization  to  be  esta 
blished. 

These  things  were  rapidly  done.  And  is  this  a  little 
thing  ?  Do  you  call  this  an  insignificant  product  of 
a  nation's  brains  ;  a  trifling  net  result  of  a  nation's 
activity  ?  The  erection  of  such  a  government  as 
that  whose  blessings  we  now  enjoy,  where  every 
man,  the  humblest,  the  poorest  —  where  every 
child,  though  an  outcast  and  alien,  sits  secure  be 
neath  the  broad  and  certain  aegis  of  our  national 
liberties,  our  national  freedom,  our  national  juris 
prudence  and  police — do  you  call  this,  indeed,  a 
small  result?  "We  have  whittled  out,  amongst  us, 
constitutions  for  one-and-thirty  confederated  States. 
The  vast  genius  and  learning,  the  still  vaster  skill 
and  talent,  all  the  combined  energies  of  France, 
month  after  month,  and  year  after  year,  endeavored 
to  construct  a  constitution ;  and  how  has  it  failed ! 
It  failed  first,  a  little  after  our  own  Constitution 
went  into  successful  operation ;  and  it  has  been  fail 
ing  almost  ever  since.  But  what  we  have  to  show 
is  a  noble  result  of  the  labor  of  a  nation's  brains.  If 
we  had  never  written  a  book,  if  we  had  never  penned 
a  line  save  those  which  are  found  in  our  Congres- 


396  PIOXEEKS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

sional  debates,  and  statute-books  and  Constitutions,  I 
take  it  that  we  have  nevertheless  built  one  of  the 
grandest  intellectual  pyramids  the  sun  ever  yet 
shone  upon.  This  is  not  a  tribute  to  national  vanity ; 
it  is  a  just  statement  of  a  nation's  claims. 

And  now  these  settlers,  hardy,  intrepid,  unkempt, 
unwashed  backwoodsmen,  betake  themselves  to  their 
business  as  law-makers.  And  in  this,  as  in  every  other 
business  they  proceed  with  a  certain  eager  earnestness, 
a  kind  of  rapt  enthusiasm.  If  they  are  to  be  law 
makers,  they  will  be  law-makers  in  deed  and  in  truth ; 
and  there  shall  be  no  shilly-shally,  no  child's  play,  no 
trifling  about  it.  The  laws  may  be  simple,  and  even 
seasoned  with  a  spice  of  grim  comicality ;  but  they 
are  stringent,  direct,  and  effective.  There  was  one, 
for  example,  at  an  early  day  in  the  West,  that  no 
man  should  be  allowed  to  remain  in  that  region  who 
had  not  some  visible  and  honorable  means  of  support. 
Every  man  must  have  work  to  do,  and  must  be  doing 
it,  sufficient  to  procure  him  the  money,  or  the 
money's  worth,  which  is  necessary  in  order  to  live. 
There  came  into  one  of  the  new  States  where  this  law 
was  in  force,  a  young  man  who  seemed  to  have  no 
employment.  His  hands  were  in  his  pockets,  and 
his  mouth  puckered  to  a  whistle,  and  that  seemed  his 
business  in  this  life.  Some  of  the  old  gentlemen  of 
the  vicinity  informed  him  that  they  had  a  statute  of 
this  description  on  their  books,  and  that  he  must  find 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  397 

some  occupation,  or  lie  had  better  go  to  some  other 
and  idler  country.  But  he  fancied,  as  some  of  our 
young  folks  to-day  are  apt  to  do,  that  they  were  a 
set  of  incapable  old  fogies,  who  set  an  absurd  over 
value  upon  their  laws  and  constitution,  and  that 
they  were  not  to  be  heeded.  In  his  coat  pocket  was 
the  secret  of  his  living — a  pack  of  greasy  cards,  into 
the  mystery  of  the  manipulation  of  which  he  pro 
posed  to  initiate  all  the  young  men  of  the  place ; 
winning  their  money,  corrupting  their  morals,  and 
debauching  their  dispositions  ;  and  then  to  "gang  his 
gate  "  as  a  missionary  of  the  devil,  onward  to  other 
regions,  to  repeat  the  same  operation.  At  the  expir 
ation,  however,  of  the  notice  served  by  the  old  fogy 
gentlemen,  a  writ  was,  to  his  astonishment,  served 
upon  him  by  an  officer,  and  he  was  carried  to  the 
"jug,"  as  they  metaphorically  called  the  jail,  putting 
the  end  for  the  means,  I  fancy,  because  they  saw 
clearly  enough  that  the  jug  generally  brings  people 
there.  Having  deposited  him  here  for  safe  keeping, 
due  advertisement  was  made,  and  the  young  man,  in 
pursuance  of  the  quaint  penalty  attached  to  this  law, 
was  marched  out  into  the  middle  of  the  public  square, 
and  set  up  on  the  horse  block,  where  the  sheriff,  as 
auctioneer,  knocked  him  down  to  the  highest  bidder. 
This  fortunate  person  was  the  village  blacksmith,  who 
forthwith  put  a  chain  round  his  leg  and  took  him  to 
his  smithy,  where  for  three  months,  from  six  o'clock 


398  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

in  the  morning  till  six  in  the  evening  our  young 
friend  was  inducted,  with  some  exertion  on  the  black 
smith's  part,  and  much  more  on  his  own,  into  the 
whole  art  and  mystery  of  blowing  and  striking ;  and 
was  deposited  for  safe  keeping  every  night  in  the 
jail.  At  the  expiration  of  his  time,  the  young  man, 
liberated  from  his  confinement,  shook  off  the  dust  of 
that  town  from  his  shoes,  and  as  he  turned  his  back 
to  the  place,  swore  it  was  the  meanest  country  that 
a  white  man  ever  got  into. 

Their  laws,  I  say,  may  have  been  strict,  and  the 
execution  of  them  may  have  been  stringent  and  swift 
enough  ;  for  oftentimes  the  only  sheriff  was  the  ready 
rifle,  resting  upon  the  pummel  of  the  saddle,  and  the 
only  judge,  the  awful  Judge  Lynch,  who  held  his 
dread  tribunal  under  the  shadow  of  the  first  tree, 
and  whose  decrees  were  executed  without  appeal, 
bill  of  exceptions,  new  trial,  recommitment,  respite 
or  pardon,  by  stalwart  men,  who  swung  the  culprit 
up  by  a  rope  led  over  the  branch  of  a  tree,  instantly 
after  judgment  given. 

The  law  of  these  new  countries,  whether  codified 
and  written  by  select  wise  men,  or  dictated  by  the 
clear  but  rough  conclusions  of  the  untutored  shrewd 
conscience  and  commonsense  of  the  community, 
must  be  enforced,  and  judgments  under  it  executed. 
For  laws  not  enforced  are  hotbeds  of  crime.  The 
case  here  was  urgent,  the  pressure  instant ;  and  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  399 

conduct  of  sucli  courts  of  "  Regulators  "  as  very  com 
monly  administered  this  prompt  rude  justice,  though 
it  seems,  compared  to  our  civilized  and  refined  no 
tions,  harsh  and  barbarous  in  the  extreme,  was,  in 
truth,  the  only  possible  means  of  securing  any  legal 
sanctions,  any  punishment  for  guilt  or  protection  for 
innocence.  For  these  new  settlements  were  an  Al- 
satia  to  which  there  gathered  all  the  vagabonds, 
ruffians,  swindlers,  thieves,  criminals  of  every  name, 
whose  evil  deeds  had  made  the  older  settlements  too 
hot  to  hold  them,  and  who  trusted  to  renew  a  safer 
course  of  guilt  among  the  wild  forests  and  thinly 
scattered  settlements.  Society  must  and  will  protect 
itself;  and  until  better  means  are  provided,  it  will 
use  those  which  are  at  hand.  It  has  always  been  so 
since  Cain,  the  murderer,  felt  that  every  man  that 
found  him  would  slay  him,  and  since  the  hand  of 
every  man  was  against  the  first  outlaw,  Ishmael.  It 
has  always  been  so,  down  to  the  day  when  we  have 
seen  great  cities  rid,  only  by  such  rude  and  lament 
able  means,  of  bands  of  villians  impregnable  to  their 
laws.  It  will  be  well  for  our  own  great  Republic  to 
remember  this ;  for  precisely  as  our  voters  cease 
to  consider  thoughtfully,  decide  carefully,  vote 
wisely,  and  act  decisively — precisely  as  they  shall 
fail  in  their  great  political  duty  of  making  good  laws, 
choosing  good  men  to  enforce  them,  and  then  watch 
ing  sharply  over  the  good  laws  and  the  good  men 


4:00  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

too — just  in  that  same  measure,  for  every  neglect  do 
we  take  a  step  backward  toward  the  law  of  the 
strong  hand,  social  dismemberment,  and  barbarism. 

Besides  the  law-making  or  law-enforcing  assem 
blies  of  these  rude  foresters,  whether  more  or  less 
formal,  the  militia  musters  afforded  another  favorite 
opportunity  for  these  social  and  genial  people  to 
gather  themselves  together.  There  was  fighting, 
and  desperate  fighting  too,  in  their  midst  or  on  their 
borders,  for  half  a  century  and  more  after  their  first 
settlements.  This  long  experience  resulted  in  a 
decided  tendency  to  military  organizations  and 
amusements  ;  and  these  drills  and  gatherings  were 
punctually  attended,  and  all  the  exercises  of  the  oc 
casion  strictly  and  earnestly  obeyed,  both  on  account 
of  their  vast  practical  importance,  and  as  a  gratifica 
tion  of  their  military  instincts.  Such  "public 
bandings,"  as  they  were  called  by  a  local  synonym 
of  the  " trainings"  and  "musters"  of  other  States 
and  all  similar  gatherings,  were  eagerly  made  use  of 
by  politicians ;  a  class  of  men  who  very  early  be 
came  numerous  and  active  in  the  West. 

Perhaps  this  circumstance  may  be  said  to  have 
produced  the  first  manifestations  of  western  mind,  and 
one  of  its  most  prominent  and  characteristic  ones, — 
viz.:  oral  political  addresses — stump  speeches,  so 
called.  This  name  was  derived  from  the  platform 
most  commonly  used  by  the  orators  of  the  back- 


OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  401 

woods,  whose  actual  or  intended  constituents,  as  the 
case  might  be,  could  not  be  troubled  with  the  elabo 
rate  niceties  of  desks  or  boarded  rostrums,  and  who, 
by  a  most  natural  ascent,  usually  occupied  a  stump, 
the  convenient  Pnyx  of  every  country  square  or 
court-house  green.  These  ambitious  aspirants,  com 
monly  not  much  if  at  all  more  learned  than  their 
rugged  auditory,  and  superior  to  them  only  in 
shrewdness,  or  desire  of  office,  or  impudence,  or  all, 
neither  needed  nor  could  use  any  subtle  trains  of 
reasoning  or  lofty  sublimities  of  thought.  Any 
excessive  tumefactions  of  speech  often  collapsed 
ignominiously  at  the  prick  of  some  stinging  joke, 
probably  bearing  no  particular  relation  to*the  speak 
er's  speech,  and  applicable  only  because  successful. 
Thus,  a  well-known  anecdote  of  one  of  these  windy 
gentlemen  relates  that  he  was  quite  overthrown 
at  the  summit  of  a  gorgeous  flight  of  eloquence, 
and  left  to  slink  dumbfounded  from  the  stage,  be 
cause  an  unscrupulous  adversary  of  tropes  and 
figures  bawled  out  at  his  back,  "  Guess  he  wouldn't 
talk  quite  so  hifalutenatin'  if  he  knowed  how  his 
breeches  was  torn  out  behind!"  The  horrified 
orator,  deceived  for  an  instant,  clapped  a  hand  to 
the  part  indicated,  and  was  destroyed — overwhelmed 
in  inextinguishable  laughter. 

But  a  trifling  misadventure  did  not  always  upset 
the  speaker.     Thus,  one  of  them  who  had  let  fly  that 


4:02  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

favorite  fowl  of  orators,  the  American  eagle,  was 
tracing  his  magnificent  flight  into  the  uppermost 
empyrean.  He  followed  the  wondrous  bird  with 
ecstatic  eye  and  finger  raised ;  and  as  he  cried  out, 
"  Don't  you  see  him,  fellow-citizens,  a  risin*  higher 
and  higher?" — an  unsophisticated  " fellow-citizen," 
in  his  immense  simplicity,  confiding  that  there  was  a 
real  eagle,  and  gazing  intently  in  vain  to  behold 
him,  sung  out,  "  Well,  d — d  if  I  can  see  him !  " 
"  Hoss ! "  exclaimed  the  speaker,  transfixing  the 
matter-of-fact  man  with  his  gaze  and  his  gesture, 
and  speaking  in  the  same  oratorical  magnificence  of 
tone — "  Hoss !  I  was  a  speakin'  in  a  figger !  "  And 
off  he  went  again  with  his  eagle ;  his  promptness 
and  seriousness  in  the  two  transitions  effectually 
shutting  out  any  ridicule. 

This  audience  was  of  men  whose  physique  had  been 
cultivated  at  the  expense  of  much  of  their  intellect ; 
whose  sense  was  not  proper  but  common ;  whose 
knowledge  had  not  come  from  books,  but  from  the 
hard  necessities  and  incessant  exertions  of  a  la 
borious  and  perilous  life.  The  speaker,  then,  must 
use  their  vernacular — a  vernacular  which  we  should 
think  vulgar — and  his  metaphors  and  similes,  if  he 
used  them  at  all,  must  be  such  as  would  readily  pene 
trate  beneath  their  tangled  hair,  and  find  lodgment 
in  their  intellects.  And  he  must,  at  the  same  time, 
appeal  to  their  feelings ;  for  the  feelings  exercise  a 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  403 

much  quicker  and  surer  power  over  the  intellect, 
than  the  intellect  over  the  feelings.  He  could  not, 
accordingly,  stand  still  and  merely  emit  his  words  as 
a  fountain  passively  pours  out  water,  for  he  who 
would  move  his  audience  must  be  moved  himself. 
It  would  never  do  for  him  to  stand  and  read  off  a 
written  paper,  first  looking  at  the  audience  and  then 
back  to  his  manuscript.  It  is  the  eye  which  wields 
the  speaker's  power  over  an  assembly.  If  you 
would  affect  any  man,  your  eyes  must  meet  his.  If 
you  would  transfuse  into  him  your  thought,  your 
feeling,  your  passion,  your  imagination,  your  poetry, 
— if,  in  a  word,  you  would  transfuse  your  life  into 
him,  your  eye  must  meet  his ;  in  the  forcible  old 
Scripture  phrase,  you  must  "  see  eye  to  eye."  And, 
as  it  is  with  one  man,  so  it  is  with  many.  For  the 
manner  of  the  word  is  powerful,  much  more  than 
the  word  itself.  It  is  not  the  brains  which  produce 
results,  it  is  the  individual,  the  being,  the  self,  the  I, 
behind  them ;  the  manner  of  the  speaking  clothes 
the  spoken  words  with  whatever  of  power  or  beauty 
is  exerted  or  shown  by  the  speaker.  It  is  the  power 
of  the  orator  accordingly,  his  earnestness,  his  pro 
found  conviction,  his  intense  realization  of  his  truth, 
his  yearning  desire  to  transfer  his  conciousness  of  it 
to  the  hearers,  which,  as  it  were,  throws  it  red-hot 
into  their  minds  and  hearts.  They  receive  it ;  and 
the  sensation  or  emotion  which  spreads  among  them 


404:  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

as  lie  speaks,  flashes  back  to  him  from  their  kindling 
eyes ;  and  his  strength,  which  he  has  sent  out  to 
them,  comes  back  to  him,  grown  gigantic  with  the 
strength  of  thousands ;  and  now  he  speaks  in  the 
power  of  a  thousand  souls  instead  of  one ;  and  the 
flux  and  reflux  of  mutual  influence,  as  managed  for  his 
purposes  by  the  intellect  of  the  speaker,  thus  become 
the  means  and  the  measure  of  his  power  over 
himself  and  them.  Thus  it  is,  that  the  rude  fellow 
upon  the  barbarous  backwoods  hustings,  who  over 
flows  with  language  ungrammatical  and  unrhetorical, 
whose  address  fairly  bristles  with  odd  phrases  and 
border  lingo,  becomes  a  prophet  clothed  in  garments 
of  supernatural  power,  and  leads  his  audience,  wil 
ling  captives,  whithersoever  he  lists,  till,  like  the 
ancient  Franks  when  they  made  a  king,  they  bear 
him  on  their  shoulders  to  his  triumph. 

Such  a  people,  not  trained  to  logic  nor  disciplined 
in  reasoning  ;  who  proceed  by  common  sense,  practi 
cal  prudence,  ordinary  business  forecast,  and  acquaint 
ance  with  the  men  and  things  and  principles  of  every 
day  life,  yet  of  excitable  passions  and  feelings,  and 
who  are  only  to  be  effectully  appealed  to  by  a  speaker 
of  the  kind  I  have  attempted  to  describe,  and  who  is, 
in  their  phrase,  "dead  in  earnest,"  are  passing 
through  a  mental  discipline  preliminary  to  the  higher 
walks  of  literature,  and  to  the  development  of  the 
nobler  moral  faculties. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  405 

And  tliis  first  manifestation  of  western  mind — in 
their  peculiar  spoken  eloquence,  is  always  the  same ; 
whether  before  a  jury,  on  the  stump,  at  the  camp- 
meeting,  at  a  militia  muster,  a  barbacue,  a  corn- 
husking,  a  house-raising,  a  log-rolling,  a  wedding  or 
a  quilting — for  the  constituency  is  always  the  same — 
is  unvarying  and  universal.  The  man  who  would 
move  them,  would  fuse  their  minds  into  one  homo 
geneous  subjection  to  his  will,  no  matter  what  his 
other  subordinate  or  collateral  attainments,  must  al 
ways  have  these  elementary  primal  powers;  the 
power  to  say  whatever  he  has  to  say  clearly  and 
forcibly,  and  the  power  of  saying  it  with  the  strength 
of  conviction,  earnestness  and  intense  enthusiasm. 

The  men  of  the  East,  trained  to  a  colder  style  of 
speech,  who  demand  a  reason  for  every  thought  sub 
mitted  to  them  ;  who  have  had  the  discipline  of  two 
studious  and  orderly  centuries  this  side  the  Atlantic ; 
who  are  under  the  organic  influence  of  so  many 
generations  dwelling  among  churches  and  school- 
houses  and  printing-presses — a  discipline  which  is 
a  great  privilege,  a  benign  heritage,  yea,  even  a 
benediction  from  above  upon  them — can  scarcely 
conceive  and  could  not  at  all  comprehend  the  in 
fluence  which  one  of  these  western  orators  exerts 
upon  his  audience,  or  its  gladdening  and  rejoicing 
effect  upon  his  own  nature  ;  nor  how  the  people  gather 
and  throng  around  him  and  revel  in  his  speech  as  ail 


4:06  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

unbought,  unpurchaseable  pleasure,  one  of  the  rarest 
of  life. 

This  rough  people,  born  and  bred  in  the  wilderness, 
has,  after  the  universal  human  fashion,  expressed  a 
characteristic  and  interesting  representation  of  its 
traits  and  tendencies  in  its  language.  For  there  is, 
so  to  speak,  a  western  Anglo-American  language, 
corresponding  singularly  and  strictly  with  the  west 
ern  style  of  thought,  and  the  character  of  western 
men.  This  language  is  thickly  studded  with  rude 
proverbial  forms,  all  redundant  with  wild  untrained 
metaphors,  some  of  which,  if  you  please,  we  will  call 
cant  and  slang.  But  all  these  phrases  have  a  mean 
ing,  often  quaintly  and  curiously  expressed  ;  and  they 
have  usually  sprung  spontaneously  out  of  the  associa 
tions  or  necessities  of  the  speakers'  lives.  Or,  again, 
they  are  as  freely  and  naturally  the  outgrowth  of  the 
minds  that  produce  them,  as  is  the  luxuriant  cane  of 
the  strong  deep  rich  soil  of  the  brakes;  not  drawn  or 
pressed  forth  by  forces  from  outside,  but  the  free 
fantastic  blossoms  of  untaught  spontaneous  thoughts. 

To  this  western  language,  as  well  as  to  the  thought 
that  threw  it  out,  fun  and  humor  gave  a  color  almost 
predominant.  Even  in  the  hardest  and  sternest 
periods  of  their  history,  when  the  crack  of  the  rifle 
and  whiz  of  the  tomahawk  were  constantly  in  their 
ears,  they  relished  fun  to  the  last  and  most  exquisite 
degree.  A  vein  of  humor  runs  through  all  the  nature 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  40  I 

of  this  people.  They  may  seem  stern,  even  savage  ; 
sombre,  and  even  sorrowful ;  self-possessed  and  quiet ; 
and  all  these  they  are,  at  times,  perhaps  often.  But 
not  constantly ;  they  are  moved  by  the  influence  of 
the  occasion,  and  carried  out  from  these  serious 
frames  of  mind.  But  they  are  jovial  and  fun-loving, 
always ;  and  whatever  their  circumstances,  they  will 
have,  from  time  to  time.,  a  season  of  such  utter  heart 
felt  relaxation  as  sometimes  to  border  on  license; 
where  the  most  uproarious  jollity  and  glee  is  the 
order  of  the  day.  There  is  a  curious  entry  in  the 
diary  of  George  Rogers  Clark,  made  during  a  visit 
to  Kentucky  at  a  time  when  the  whites  were  suffering 
greatly  from  the  attacks  of  the  savages,  showing  how 
this  characteristic  struck  the  hardy  soldier :  "  25th 
July,  1776.  Lieut.  Lynn  was  married  this  day  at 
Harrod's  Station" — remember  that  in  all  that  year 
there  was  not  a  day  when  the  neighborhood  of  liar- 
rod's  Station  was  free  from  the  presence  of  hostile 
savages — "  and  the  merry-making  was  absolutely 
marvellous."  Old  Bishop  Asbury,  who  made  a  jour 
ney  into  the  same  region  in  1783  or  1784,  while  the 
Indian  fighting  was  still  going  on,  and  the  people 
were  pressed  to  the  uttermost,  says,  "  It  is  marvellous 
to  see  how  the  desire  for  matrimony  reign eth  in  this 
country."  The  entrances  upon  these  matrimonial 
speculations,  so  heartily  ventured  upon  by  the  young 
people — by  the  girls  generally  at  fifteen  and  the  boys 


408  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

at  seventeen — were  invariably  made  tlie  occasions  for 
the  j  oiliest  and  most  thoroughgoing  fun. 

The  negroes  were  ex  officio,  as  ever,  lovers  of  jokes 
and  fun,  and  even  in  time  of  war  were  as  cool  and 
as  inclined  to  jollity  as  their  reckless  masters.  One 
of  them,  who  was  out  along  with  his  master  and  a 
band  of  foresters  in  hot  pursuit  of  a  party  of  Indians, 
who  had  committed  an  outrage  upon  some  lonely 
cabin  or  blockhouse,  made  an  observation  which  still 
remains  on  record;  a  simple  speech  enough,  but 
which  may  serve  to  illustrate  my  point.  The  pursu 
ers  gained  sight  of  the  Indians  while  descending  a 
hill.  As  the  foremost  of  the  whites  was  hastening 
forward,  closely  followed  by  the  warlike  Sambo,  the 
captain  of  the  whites,  observing  that  the  Indians 
greatly  outnumbered  his  force,  gave  the  low  whistle 
which  was  the  signal  of  retreat.  Sambo,  however, 
heedless  of  the  unwelcome  order  of  recall,  pressed  on 
down  the  hill  with  his  white  companion,  and  taking 
shelter  in  a  thicket,  observed  an  immense  Indian  peer 
ing  above  the  hill  beyond,  to  reconnoitre  the  position 
of  the  pursuers,  his  head  just  visible  from  behind  the 
trunk  of  a  tree.  Sambo  raises  his  rifle  and  blazes 
away  at  him,  singing  out  at  the  top  of  his  voice, 
"  Dar !  Take  dat  to  remember  Sambo  the  black  white 
man !"  and  then  retraces  his  steps. 

Even  the  Indians,  usually  reckoned  so  sombre  and 
saturnine  a  race,  were  by  no  means  destitute  of  a 


OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI.  409 

very  peculiar  dry  and  quaint  humor.  Indeed,  it  is 
beyond  doubt  that  in  the  social  security  of  their  far 
and  peaceful  homes  in  the  wilderness,  they  laughed 
and  chatted  and  joked,  and  sung  and  told  stories 
with  as  much  glee,  and  careless,  happy  delight,  as 
any  civilized  circles.  But  though  the  indications  of 
their  possession  of  wit  and  humor  are  equally  well 
authenticated,  they  are  much  rarer.  A  good  speci 
men  of  Indian  humor,  without  any  such  intention  on 
the  part  of  the  savage,  was  a  remark  made  by  one  of 
them  while  the  fearful  earthquakes  of  1811-12  were 
devastating  the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio, 
and  the  wildest  and  most  terrific  freaks  of  nature 
were  being  exhibited  in  many  portions  of  that  vast 
area.  While  New  Madrid  seemed  sinking  bodily 
into  the  abyss,  and  the  bed  of  the  vast  Mississippi 
River  was  undergoing  an  absolute  change  of  location, 
its  great  floods  rushing  through  the  monstrous  chasms 
which  opened  a  new  and  strange  path  for  the  waters, 
while  the  great  trees  were  rocking  to  and  fro,  trem 
bling  and  falling,  and  the  earth  gaped  in  bottomless 
rents,  the  savage  stood  cool  and  stoical,  his  arms 
folded  upon  his  breast,  gazing  upon  the  scene.  A 
white  man  addressed  him  with  the  inquiry,  " "What 
do  you  make  of  all  this?  What  do  these  things 
mean  ?"  The  Indian,  sorrowfully  enough,  and  as  if 
the  last  prop  of  all  his  hopes  here  and  hereafter  were 
gone,  thus  delivered  a  most  original — and  aboriginal 

18 


410  PIONEEES,   PEEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

— theory  of  earthquakes  :  "  Great  Spirit  got  whisky 
too  much !" 

The  wild  life  of  the  borderers  naturally  occasioned 
the  coining  of  many  singular  words  and  phrases. 
These,  like  many  of  the  idioms  and  modes  of  speech 
peculiar  to  the  Indians,  were  the  result  not  of  imagi 
nation,  but  of  a  paucity  of  language.  It  is  common 
to  descant  upon  the  poetry  and  eloquence  of  the  In 
dians  ;  and  the  celebrated  speech  of  Logan  is  often 
mentioned — as  Jefferson  mentioned  it — as  almost  un 
paralleled  in  the  records  of  ancient  or  modern  ora 
tory.  Yet,  in  the  first  place,  it  may  well  be  ques 
tioned  whether  those  words  ever  passed  Logan's  lips. 
And  if  they  did,  although  it  is  very  true  that  they 
are  preeminent  among  specimens  of  Indian  oratory, 
it  is  still  true  of  that  oratory  in  general,  that  its  poet 
ical  phrases  and  ever  recurring  formulas  and  figures 
and  personifications  are  singularly  few  in  number, 
and  monotonously  repeated,  and  this  for  the  reason 
that  these  wild  and  unreflecting  and  thoughtless  peo 
ple,  ignorant  of  abstract  thinking,  destitute  of 
abstract  ideas,  and  circumscribed  within  a  very  nar 
row  circle  of  mental  action,  are  unable  to  convey  any 
except  a  very  small  number  of  very  ordinary  and 
every-day  ideas,  without  employing  terms  borrowed 
from  material  nature.  Their  language  possessed  no 
words — or  almost  none — for  the  expression  of  abstract 
ideas ;  nor  did  it  contain  words  of  high  intellectual 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

significance,  or  deep  ethical  meaning.  Even  for 
conceptions  as  ordinary  among  us  as  "prosperous 
circumstances,"  "  affluence,"  or  "  a  season  of  remark 
able  enjoyment,"  they  had  no  better  form  of  expres 
sion  than  "  a  sunshiny  day ;"  or  "a  day  as  placid  as  the 
bosom  of  a  lake."  Such  terms  as  these,  or,  for  in 
stance,  those  well-known  figurative  expressions  of 
"burying  the  hatchet,"  "brightening  the  chain  of 
friendship,"  and  the  like,  although  to  those  unac 
quainted  with  them  seeming  poetic  enough,  are  in 
truth  the  meagre  products  of  the  barest  and  barren- 
est  poverty. 

It  was  this  dry  and  meagre  form  of  language  which 
drove  both  Indians  and  Anglo-American  borderers 
to  the  use  of  analogous  terms,  whose  inappropriate- 
ness  often  renders  them  quaint  or  even  witty,  where 
no  such  effect  was  intended.  There  is  in  print  a  well- 
known  writ,  issued  by  an  Indian  justice  of  the  peace, 
long  ago  in  Massachusetts,  which  illustrates  my  point. 
It  ran  thus : — "  I,  Ilihoudi.  You,  Peter  "Waterman. 
Jeremy  Wicket.  Quick  you  take  him,  fast  you  hold 
him,  straight  you  bring  him  before  me.  Ilihoudi." 
A  singularly  close  parallel  to  this  was  the  proclama 
tion  of  the  western  sheriff,  at  the  beginning  and 
ending  of  court.  As  the  ermined  judge  ascended 
the  tribunal,  this  matter-of-fact  functionary  bawled 
out,  "  O  yes,  O  yes,  court  am  open!"  and  when  the 
labors  of  the  day  were  over,  he  proclaimed  again 


412  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

with  genuine  western  adherence  to  sense  and  logic, 
and  disregard  of  form,  the  substance  of  the  fact,  thus  : 
"  O  yes,  O  yes,  court  am  shet !" 

Thus,  I  repeat,  many  of  the  expressions  of  the  wes 
tern  borderers  which  seem  to  us  imaginative,  humor 
ous,  or  ludicrous,  though  in  some  cases,  perhaps,  de 
rived  from  ancestors  or  ancestral  peculiarities,  were 
usually  adopted  as  the  first  which  came  to  hand 
when  the  new  idea  to  be  expressed  came  up  asking 
for  a  word.  The  foresters  had  no  training  in  lan 
guage,  and  no  habitude  in  abstract  thought,  or  in 
modifying  and  distinguishing  notions.  But  they  had 
abundant  readiness  and  self-reliance,  and  when  they 
wanted  a  new  word  they  either  took  an  old  one  and 
modified  it  into  a  new  one,  much  on  the  principle 
which  forced  their  wives  to  make  one  utensil  serve 
as  wash-basin,  kettle,  dish,  dish-pan,  and  swill-pail ; 
or  they  manufactured  one  out  of  whole  cloth,  often 
in  ridiculous  exemplification  of  that  figure  of  speech 
to  which  the  grammarians  have  given  the  clumsy 
name  of  onomatopoeia :  namely,  making  the  sound 
suggest  the  sense. 

The  former  of  these  two  methods  made  words  like 
"  spontanaceous  "  for  spontaneous ;  "  obfusticate  "  for 
obfuscate  ;  "  cantankerous  "  for  cankerous  ;  "  rampa- 
gious  "  or  "  rampunctious  "  for  rampant ;  "  hifalutin  " 
or  " hifalutin atin "  for  high-flying;  " tetotaciously " 
for  totally;  and  the  like.  The  latter  resulted  in 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  413 

terms  having  often  a  ludicrous  general  similarity  to 
proper  English  words  of  the  long  Latin  kind,  but 
utterly  unfounded  in  fact ;  the  merest  phantoms  of  a 
raw,  absurd  and  unconscious  fancy.  Such  are  "  sock 
dolager"  for  a  knock-down  blow;  " Explatterate," 
to  crush  or  smash  ;  "  explunctify,"  for  the  same ; 
"  honey-fuggle,"  to  hang  about  one  and  flatter  him  for 
mean  purposes ;  and  so  on. 

Many  of  the  figures  of  speech  and  forms  of  rheto 
ric  which  characterize  western  eloquence,  partake  of 
the  same  bombastic  and  unsound  character ;  this, 
however,  of  course  not  being  true  of  the  best  of  the 
western  orators.  And  all  these,  words  and  figures 
and  sentences,  while  they  possess  a  show  of  poetical 
or  imaginative  character,  with  more  or  less  of  its 
actual  essence,  are  nevertheless  as  a  whole  the  pro 
ducts  of  deplorable  and  extreme  barrenness  of  mind 
and  poverty  of  thought. 

But  with  the  gradual  growth  of  population,  wealth, 
refinement  and  education,  there  is  of  course  a  gra 
dual  change  in  these  respects ;  the  phraseology  and 
the  intellect  of  the  people  improve  and  develop  to 
gether.  This  change  is  brought  about  at  the  West, 
in  great  measure,  by  means  of  the  increasing  fre 
quency  of  public  speaking.  And  we  must  not  judge 
of  the  power  exerted  upon  the  people,  nor  the  good 
done  them,  merely  by  estimating  the  amount  of  posi 
tive  information  furnished  by  the  speaker,  and  his 


PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

grade  of  intelligence.  It  is  from  the  stimulation 
which  their  natures  experience,  from  his  pouring  out 
and  rendering  up  to  them  of  the  treasures  of  his  own 
life  and  soul,  that  the  abiding  profit  of  his  work  is 
derived.  Now  the  rude  speeches  and  sermons  of  the 
West  task  and  stimulate  the  intellects  of  the  people, 
and  set  their  minds  in  motion.  The  steam  is  turned 
on  ;  and  when  that  is  done,  the  engine  must  move 
forward  or  backward,  or  else  explode.  It  may  be 
admitted — to  carry  out  the  figure — that  an  explosion 
has  sometimes  happened,  but  on  the  whole,  the  gene 
ral  result  has  been  a  movement  ahead.  As  was  na 
turally  to  be  expected,  there  was  undue  emphasis, 
exaggeration,  violence,  and  exceeding  heat.  All  this 
was  perfectly  natural,  and  to  be  expected ;  but  from 
this  noisy  fermentation  has  come  out,  after  all,  a  style 
of  eloquence  which  has  become  distinctively  and  em 
phatically  American  eloquence.  The  spoken  elo 
quence  of  New  England  is  for  the  most  part  from 
manuscript.  Her  first  settlers  brought  old  world 
forms  and  fashions  from  the  old  world  with  them. 
Their  preachers  were  set  at  an  appalling  distance 
from  their  congregations.  Between  the  pulpit, 
perched  far  up  toward  the  ceiling,  and  the  seats,  was 
an  awful  abysmal  depth.  Above  the  lofty  desk  was 
dimly  seen  the  white  cravat,  and  above  that  the  head 
of  the  preacher.  His  eye  was  averted  and  fastened 
downward  upon  his  manuscript,  and  his  discourse. 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  415 

or  exercitation,  or  whatever  it  might  be,  was  de 
livered  in  a  monotonous,  regular  cadence,  probably 
relieved  from  time  to  time  by  some  quaint  blunder, 
the  result  of  indistinct  penmanship,  or  dim  religious 
light.  It  was  not  this  preacher's  business  to  arouse 
his  audience.  The  theory  of  the  worship  of  the 
period  was  opposed  to  that.  His  people  did  not  wish 
excitement  or  stimulus,  or  astonishment,  or  agitation. 
They  simply  desired  information  ;  they  wished  to  be 
instructed  ;  to  have  their  judgment  informed,  or  their 
reason  enlightened.  Thus  the  preacher  might  safely 
remain  perched  up  in  his  far  distant  unimpassioned 
eyrie. 

But  how  would  such  a  style  of  eloquence — if,  in 
deed  truth  will  permit  the  name  of  eloquence  to  be 
applied  to  the  reading  of  matter  from  a  preconcerted 
manuscript — how  would  such  a  style  of  delivery  be 
received  out  in  the  wild  West  ?  Place  your  textual 
speaker  out  in  the  backwoods,  on  the  stump,  where  a 
surging  tide  of  humanity  streams  strongly  around 
him,  where  the  people  press  up  toward  him  on  every 
side,  their  keen  eyes  intently  perusing  his  to  see  if 
he  be  in  real  earnest — "  dead  in  earnest" — and  where, 
as  with  a  thousand  darts,  their  contemptuous  scorn 
would  pierce  him  through  if  he  were  found  playing 
a  false  game,  trying  to  pump  up  tears  by  mere  act 
ing,  or  arousing  an  excitement  without  feeling  it. 
Would  such  a  style  of  oratory  succeed  there  ?  By  no 


416  PIONEERS,    PKEACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

means.  The  place  is  different,  the  hearers  are  differ 
ent  ;  the  time,  the  thing  required,  all  the  circum 
stances  are  totally  different.  Here,  in  the  vast  un- 
walled  church  of  nature,  with  the  leafy  tree-tops  for  a 
ceiling,  their  massy  stems  for  columns  ;  with  the  end 
less  mysterious  cadences  of  the  forest  for  a  choir ;  with 
the  distant  or  nearer  music  and  murmur  of  streams, 
and  the  ever-returning  voice  of  birds  sounding  in 
their  ears  for  the  made-up  music  of  a  picked  band  of 
exclusive  singers:  here  stand  men  whose  ears  are 
trained  to  catch  the  faintest  foot-fall  of  the  distant 
deer,  or  the  rustle  of  their  antlers  against  branch  or 
bough  of  the  forest  track — whose  eyes  are  skilled 
to  discern  the  trail  of  savages,  who  leave  scarce  a 
track  behind  them  ;  and  who  will  follow  upon  that 
trail,  utterly  invisible  to  the  untrained  eye,  as  surely 
as  a  bloodhound  follows  the  scent,  ten  or  twenty,  or 
a  hundred  miles — whose  eye  and  hand  are  so  well 
practised  that  they  can  drive  a  nail  or  snuff  a  candle 
with  the  long,  heavy  western  rifle.  Such  men,  edu 
cated  for  years,  or  even  generations,  in  that  hard 
school  of  necessity,  where  every  one's  hand  and  wood 
man's  skill  must  keep  his  head ;  where  incessant 
pressing  necessities  required  ever  a  prompt  and  suffi 
cient  answer  in  deeds ;  and  where  words  needed  to  be 
but  few,  and  those  the  plainest  and  directest,  required 
no  delay  nor  preparation,  nor  oratorical  coquetting, 
nor  elaborate  preliminary  scribble  ;  no  hesitation  nor 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  417 

doubts  in  deeds ;  no  circumlocution  in  words.  To 
restrain,  influence,  direct,  govern,  such  a  surging 
sea  of  life  as  this,  required  something  very  different 
from  a  written  address.  The  effect  of  the  New 
England  manner  of  preaching  upon  a  western  man 
is  illustrated  by  the  broad  and  random  criticism  of 
that  same  rough  old  Peter  Cartwright,  of  whom  I 
have  already  written.  All  that  he  thought  it  worth 
while  to  say  of  the  young  clergyman  who  delivered 
a  written  sermon  somewhere  along  his  western  track, 
was,  that  "  it  made  him  think  of  a  gosling  that  had 
got  the  straddles  by  wading  in  the  dew."  What  that 
eloquence  is  which  can  and  does  control  such  a  con 
stituency,  can  scarce  be  conceived,  except  by  those 
who  have  heard  it.  Yet  there  is  is,  and  of  a  lofty 
grade  of  power  and  beauty  ;  and  it  has  become  dis 
tinctively  American  in  method  and  style. 

It  would  not  be  difficult  to  fill  volumes  with  quo 
tations  illustrative  of  the  eloquence  and  wit  and 
humor  of  the  West.  But  such  quotations  are  too 
plentiful  in  our  contemporary  literature  to  make  any 
such  selection  at  all  necessary ;  and  I  have  preferred 
accordingly  to  present  such  an  imperfect  analysis  as 
I  might  of  the  shaping  causes  which  have  waited  011 
its  birth  and  growth.  The  causes  of  the  character  of 
western  mind,  the  nature  and  derivation  of  its  con 
stituents,  have  been  too  little  examined  to  be  under 
stood  or  appreciated. 

18* 


418  PIONEEES,    PBEACHEES   AND   PEOPLE 

As  I  already  quoted  a  negro  as  affording  an 
instance  of  the  grim  and  cool  humor  characteristic 
of  his  western  home,  if  not  of  his  own  tropical 
blood,  so  I  desire  to  cite  another  as  having,  in 
a  brief  and  homely  description,  exemplified  a  very 
high  order  of  rude  natural  eloquence.  This  was 
a  preacher,  who  was  endeavoring  to  set  forth  the 
attributes  of  the  Almighty  ;  and  who  summed  up  the 
mysterious  and  awful  powers  of  the  Unknown  God 
in  a  single  sentence,  which,  for  terseness  and  telling 
force  and  beauty,  it  would  be  difficult  to  match. 
Using  a  common  western  and  southern  idiom,  he 
thus  said :  "  He  totes  the  thunder  in  his  fist,  and 
flings  the  lightning  from  his  fingers." 

I  well  remember  the  impression  produced  upon 
me — a  boy  of  twenty-two  years  of  age,  educated 
in  the  woods  and  prairies  of  the  "West — when  I  attended 
for  the  first  time  the  session  of  Congress  at  "Wash 
ington.  I  imagined  that  whatever  eloquence  I  might 
have  heard  was,  at  least  in  some  sense,  deficient  in 
the  higher  and  sublimer  qualities  of  oratory.  I  had 
heard  and  read  much  of  the  great  men  of  our 
national  legislature,  and  fully  expected  to  be 
charmed  beyond  measure,  in  House  and  Senate, 
with  new  revelations  of  majesty  and  beauty ;  to  be 
educated  into  a  perfect  passion  for  eloquence ;  to  sit 
long  happy  days  and  nights  in  the  halls  of  Congress, 
listening,  a  humble  scholar,  to  those  great  men  as 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  419 

they  expounded  or  enforced  the  principles  of  the 
laws  and  the  statesmanship  of  the  land.  The  disap 
pointment  I  experienced  was  inconceivable.  I  had 
expected  a  new  kind  of  speech,  something  loftier 
and  nobler  than  I  had  heard  before ;  but,  after  hear 
ing  the  most  famous  debaters,  the  world-renowned 
champions  of  that  great  arena,  I  went  home  to  my 
boarding-house  every  evening  with  the  mental  ex 
clamation,  "  Can  it  be  possible  that  all  these  men 
have  taken  lessons  in  eloquence  from  the  old  Metho 
dist  preachers  and  exhorters  of  the  "West  ?  "  The 
most  effective  and  successful  of  them  were  those  who 
spoke  loudest  and  with  most  passion,  and  thumped 
the  desks  the  hardest,  just  as  it  was  at  the  West.  I 
have  seen  Adams  and  Webster  thumping  on  the 
desks  in  front  of  them  as  if  they  had  no  knuckles 
at  all,  or  wanted  to  knock  them  off.  The  western 
style  of  oratory  has  become  American ;  it  is  extem 
pore,  the  thoughts  suggested  by  the  occasion,  and 
the  words  such  as  mustered  upon  the  hasty  call  of 
the  thoughts ;  often  harsh,  or  rude,  or  ill-sounding 
words ;  but,  nevertheless,  words  of  force,  every  one 
effective  in  performing  the  service  of  the  occasion. 

A  western  writer,  in  a  sketch  of  a  trip  into  the 
State  of  Kentucky  about  1806,  has  occasion  to 
describe  one  who  was  an  early  and  splendid  master 
of  the  style  of  eloquence  of  which  I  have  spoken. 
This  writer  had  occasion  to  visit  the  lower  or  Green 


420  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS    AND    PEOPLE 

River  counties,  and  on  arriving  at  a  county  town 
found  the  court  just  assembling,  and  a  great  con- 
course  of  people  from  all  the  region  round,  gathered 
together  in  expectation  of  a  trial  which  had  excited 
very  great  interest  in  all  the  neighborhood.  He 
entered  the  court-house,  an  extempore  affair — for  all 
the  appurtenances  of  justice,  like  the  speeches  of 
that  day  and  place,  were  improvised.  The  abode  of 
justice  was  a  log-cabin.  On  one  side  sat  the  judge, 
and  the  sheriff,  shouting  out  "Oyez,  oyez,"  proclaimed 
the  opening  of  the  court.  Business  was  begun,  and 
the  docket  regularly  called ;  and  in  process  of  time 
this  case,  so  eagerly  looked  forward  to,  was  put 
in  course  of  trial ;  the  witnesses  were  called  and 
examined,  and  the  pleadings  commenced.  The  case 
was  a  civil  suit  for  damages  for  slander,  brought  by 
a  poor  orphan  girl,  whose  fair  name,  her  only  posses 
sion,  had  been  defamed  by  the  defendant,  a  wealthy 
man  in  that  region.  She  had  no  kinsmen  who  could 
revenge  this  great  wrong  by  personal  prowess,  by 
the  strong  hand,  as  the  custom  of  the  country  would 
ordinarily  have  required;  and  the  spirited  young 
girl  found  herself  perforce  left  to  the  slow  resource 
of  the  law.  The  counsel  for  the  plaintiff,  as  he  ap 
peared  to  my  authority,  was  tall,  straight,  and  rather 
slender ;  of  dark,  or  at  least,  swarthy  features.  Long 
black  locks  fell  over  his  face,  an  eagle-eye  looked 
keenly  from  beneath  his  forehead,  and  his  costume, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  421 

as  unjuridical  a  dress  as  could  well  be  conceived, 
was  that  of  a  hunter  in  those  woods:  buckskin 
hunting-shirt,  with  fringed  border  leggins  and 
moccasins.  lie  rose  and  commenced  his  speech. 
As  he  proceeded,  the  wild  backwoodsmen,  who  had 
gathered  from  their  sports  and  antics  about  the 
court-house  green,  crowded  around,  and  now  breath 
less,  their  attention  riveted  by  the  eloquence  of  the 
speaker.  Every  niche  of  the  little  building  was 
crowded,  and  every  window  and  doorway  filled  with 
absorbed  listeners.  As  with  imperative  and  heart - 
touching  power  the  speaker  described  the  helpless 
loneliness  of  the  orphaned  maiden  his  client,  her  sad 
isolation  within  the  broad  and  busy  wroiid,  judge, 
and  clerk,  and  jury,  and  audience,  were  subdued 
with  irrepressible  emotion.  And  again,  as  he  as 
sailed  the  man  who  attempted  to  defile  her  reputa 
tion,  it  seemed  as  if  a  tornado  of  fire  were  drying  up 
all  the  streams.  As  the  hot  and  scorching  wind 
of  his  sarcasm  and  invective  swept  through  the 
audience,  their  eyes  flashed  and  their  bosoms  heaved  ; 
he  carried  their  very  souls  captive,  and  every  man  of 
them  made  the  orphan's  cause  his  own.  So  utterly 
did  the  assembly  pass  beneath  the  influence  and  into 
the  spirit  of  that  indignant  and  terrible  denunciation, 
that  had  the  slanderer  been  on  the  spot  it  is  very 
doubtful  whether  he  would  have  left  the  place  alive, 
when  the  words  of  this  backwoods  counsel 


422  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS   AND   PEOPLE 

were  ended,  the  jury,  without  retiring  from  their 
seats,  brought  in  a  verdict  for  heavy  damages. 

Some  years  thereafter,  and  just  subsequently  to  the 
war  of  1812,  this  same  writer  had  occasion  to  be  in 
the  State  of  Indiana,  and  was  near  one  of  Harrison's 
battle-grounds.  Early  in  the  morning  he  rose  and 
rode  out  to  see  the  scene  of  the  fight  ;  and  fiist 
he  repaired  to  a  spot  where,  underneath  a  broad  and 
noble  tree,  was  a  little  mound  of  earth  without 
paling  or  defence,  and  with  no  stone  to  mark  the 
head  of  him  who  rested  there — for  he  had  come 
to  visit  the  grave  of  the  eloquent  advocate  whom  he 
had  heard  in  southern  Kentucky.  Here  lay  the 
successful  lawyer,  the  all-powerful  orator,  the  brave 
soldier,  the  noble  and  upright  man,  the  husband 
of  the  sister  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  the  man  who 
had  held  Aaron  Burr  at  bay,  and  who  opposed  and 
exposed  the  plots  with  which  that  arch  seducer  was 
wiling  away  honest  citizens  to  treason  and  death ; 
the  equal  antagonist  of  Henry  Clay,  and  who,  if  in 
stead  of  falling  at  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe,  he  had 
lived  as  long  as  Clay,  would  have  won  as  high,  if  not 
a  higher  place,  than  did  even  that  great  orator  of 
the  West.  Such  was  he  who  is  yet  familiarly  spoken 
of  and  cherished  in  memory  throughout  all  the  West 
as  Jo  Hamilton  Daviess,  one  of  the  noblest,  most  lofty 
minded,  loftily  and  daringly  ambitious,  and  yet  one 
of  the  most  simple-hearted  and  truthful  of  all  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 


423 


eminent  men    that    the    fruitful   border    land    has 
yet  produced. 

I  have  mentioned  the  name  of  him  who  was  then 
the  rival  of  Daviess.  No  two  men  are  more  perfect 
representatives  and  ideals  of  that  western  mind  whose 
qualities  and  productions  I  have  feebly  endeavored 
to  describe.  They  came  from  the  people,  and  were 
rocked  in  the  cradle  of  adversity.  Their  eyes  were 
disciplined  in  the  rights,  and  their  ears  to  the  sounds 
of  the  forest.  They  were  the  ready  and  sensitive  and 
diligent  students  of  nature,  in  all  her  stern  and  harsh 
and  rugged  forms,  and  in  all  her  sweet  sylvan  beau 
ties.  Waterfalls  and  the  quiet  voice  of  placid  streams, 
the  vivid  verdure  of  the  spring  and  the  warm  luxu 
rious  breath  of  summer ;  the  cold  and  the  rigid  frosts, 
the  white  still  snow  and  the  bitter  furious  storms  of 
winter ;  the  sound  of  the  battle  too,  and  the  alarms 
and  perils  of  war — all  these  had  trained  them.  They 
bore  throbbing  fiery  hearts,  often  vivid  with  excite 
ment  and  wild  with  passion;  and  their  audiences 
were  men  of  like  mold  and  hearts,  and  like  passions 
with  themselves.  Thus  they  found  congenial  mate 
rials  to  be  worked  upon;  free,  open,  sensitive  and 
truthful  souls,  ready  to  receive  the  impress  of  their 
burning  genius ;  and  for  men  like  them,  starting  in 
any  professional  career,  either  as  lawyer,  states 
man  or  divine,  no  nobler  or  fitter  materials  could 
have  been  found. 


424:  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

Thus  did  Henry  Clay  embark  upon  the  career  of 
a  lawyer's  life,  his  heart  in  his  hand ;  his  nature  in 
full  and  free  sympathy  with  that  of  the  masses ;  al 
ways  true  to  freedom  and  justice,  and  no  respecter 
of  persons ;  enforcing  as  occasion  served  that  perilous 
duty  of  the  emancipation  of  the  negro  race  ;  serving 
a  writ  for  the  keeper  of  a  dram-shop,  upon  a  distin 
guished  lawyer,  for  drinks  and  liquor  unpaid  for,  and 
so  securing  the  undying  hostility  of  an  influential 
man.  At  one  bound,  he  springs  into  the  foremost 
rank  of  the  legal  talent  of  the  day.  He  is  little 
learned  in  books ;  he  has  not  moved  even  in  the 
graceful  society  of  his  own  native  Virginia  ;  it  must 
be  the  movements  of  the  trees  bending  in  the  wind 
that  have  taught  him  his  grace  and  dignity  of  attitude 
and  gesture.  He  has  spent  little  time  over  the  great 
works  of  Greek  and  Eoman  orators ;  it  is  his  own 
earnest  convictions,  his  piercing  intelligence,  his  true 
sympathies  and  keen  perceptions  and  instincts,  that 
reveal  to  him  what  are  the  thoughts  required,  and 
the  words  in  which  they  should  be  clothed.  Thus 
profoundly  true,  and  wondrously  adapted  to  that 
community,  he  becomes  the  master  of  the  intellect 
of  the  West.  Stepping  by  a  transition  so  natural  and 
common,  from  law  into  politics,  he  enters  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  either  there  or  in  the  House 
becomes  the  head  of  the  party  who  advocated  the 
last  war  with  Great  Britain ;  and  boldly  and  deter- 


OF    THE   MISSISSIPPI.  425 

minedly  leads  the  van  in  upholding  the  government, 
in  the  face  of  many  bitter  adversaries  and  with  many 
faint  friends,  and  against  the  whole  embodied  opposi 
tion  of  N"ew  England.  Sent  to  Europe  as  commis 
sioner  to  conclude  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  together  with 
Adams,  Bayard,  Gallatin,  and  Russell,  he  is  a 
controlling  spirit  in  the  negotiations ;  and  Lord 
Castlereagh,  one  of  the  most  polished  and  finished 
of  the  courtiers  of  Europe,  from  youth  familiar  with 
the  most  refined  and  aristocratic  society  of  the  old 
world,  pronounces  this  untutored  child  of  the  wilder 
ness  the  most  elegant  and  accomplished  gentleman 
he  had  ever  seen.  Returning  home,  he  passes  from 
one  post  of  honor  and  distinction  to  another,  receiv 
ing  almost  every  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people 
except  the  highest ;  and  links  his  name,  together 
with  one  or  two  others,  to  every  great  event  and 
epoch  in  our  history  from  that  date  almost  to  the 
present.  1820,  1832,  1850,  found  Clay  and  Webster 
standing  side  by  side ;  foremost  in  withstanding 
every  storm.  Against  each  onset,  they  stood,  like 
some  colossal  monumental  forms,  breasting  the  full 
tempest  and  malignity  of  its  fury,  sometimes  so 
utterly  hidden  in  the  darkness  and  rage  of  the  ele 
ments,  that  they  seem  to  be  tottering  and  falling,  to 
be  ground  to  atoms  far  below.  But  they  not  only 
outlast,  but  govern  the  wild  elements  that  assault 
them :  they  "  ride  the  whirlwind  and  direct  the 


426  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEKS   AND   PEOPLE 

storm."  And  as  they  thus  stood  so  often,  so  shall 
stand  for  hundreds  of  years  to  come  the  names  of  the 
two  great  men,  one  from  the  "West  and  one  from  the 
North ;  the  graceful  Ash  of  Kentucky,  and  the  massive 
Granite  Block  of  New  Hampshire. 

Henry  Clay  had  not  the  culture,  the  profound  legal 
lore,  the  thoroughly  disciplined  logical  faculty,  of 
Webster ;  nor  his  broad  and  dome-like  brow,  or  the 
deep  and  cavernous  eyes  from  which  flashed  forth 
such  profound  and  mighty  fires  when  he  stood  before 
Bench  or  Senate.  But  Henry  Clay,  graceful,  agile, 
dextrous,  full  of  fire  and  passion,  yet  with  a  will 
fixed  as  fate,  a  born  commander  of  men — the  joy 
and  light  of  every  social  circle  he  entered ;  loved  by 
women  as  no  man  on  this  continent  has  ever  been ; 
and  for  whose  defeat  in  1844  I  suppose  more  women's 
tears  were  shed  than  for  any  single  event  before — 
stands  before  us  as  the  illustrious  type  and  represen 
tative  of  the  eloquence  of  the  western  country.  And, 
take  him  for  all  in  all,  as  man  of  the  people  and 
orator  of  the  people,  whatever  his  short-comings  or 
failings,  it  will  be  many  a  long  year  before  we  look 
upon  his  like  again  ! 

I  cannot  conclude  without  a  brief  reference  to 
a  few  writers  whose  works  embody  most  of  the  pecu 
liar  traits  and  oddities,  fun,  humor  and  wit,  of  the 
southwestern  United  States.  These  are,  Col.  T.  B. 
Thorpe,  now  of  New  York,  Johnson  Hooper  of  Ala- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  427 

bama,  and  Judge  Longstreet  of  Mississippi.  Thorpe's 
"  Bee-Hunter  "  is  an  unrivalled  sketch  of  the  times 
of  the  first  pioneers  in  Arkansas.  Judge  Longstreet, 
whom  I  am  half  sorry,  half  glad,  to  own  as  a  fellow 
Methodist  preacher,  is  the  author  of  "Georgia 
Scenes ;"  and  Johnson  Hooper  wrote  that  famous  and 
most  characteristic  book,  "  The  Adventures  of  Simon 
Suggs."  These,  and  other  works  of  these  three 
gentlemen,  contain  the  fullest  and  most  characteristic 
delineations  of  the  ways  of  thinking,  acting  and 
speaking  in  those  distant  regions,  anywhere  to  be 
found  in  print. 


Lecture    X. 
THE    GREAT   VALLEY; 

ITS  PAST,  ITS  PRESENT,  AND  ITS  FUTUEE. 


THE  GREAT  VALLEY: 

ITS   PAS!,  ITS   PRESENT,  AND  ITS  FUTURE. 

I  HAVE  now,  in  a  series  of  isolated  pictures, 
sketched  the  history  of  the  Mississippi  Yalley,  by  a 
successive  portraiture  of  its  representative  men  and 
periods,  during  three  centuries ;  from  the  first  voyages 
of  the  hardy  Spanish  discoverers  who  skirted  its  coasts, 
and  their  bold  and  ill-fated  endeavors  to  penetrate 
the  hostile  realms  of  its  far  interior,  so  long  believed 
to  blaze  with  unimaginable  wealth  of  gold — so 
fearfully  revealed  as  a  fatal  forest  wilderness  swarm 
ing  with  desperate  and  warlike  defenders — down  to 
that  strange  enterprise  of  Aaron  Burr,  which  in  so 
many  points  of  wild  and  hopeless  absurdity,  of  vision 
ary  hardihood,  of  unscrupulous,  conscienceless  wicked 
ness,  and  disregard  of  rights  human  or  divine, 
resembles  the  early  inroads  of  the  Spaniard ; — and 
down  to  those  other  crusades,  longer  in  continuance, 
scarcely  less  perilous  for  hardship  and  danger,  and 
immeasurably  loftier  in  spirit  and  in  aim,  the  wan 
dering  self-denying  missionary  lives  of  the  pioneer 
preachers — the  worthy  successors  of  Marqiiette,  of 
Breboeuf  and  of  Jaques. 

431 


432  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

It  remains,  in  the  concluding  lecture,  to  sum  up 
the  whole  in  such  a  manner  as  may  group  into  one 
single  picture,  the  figures,  the  light  and  shade,  the 
distance  and  the  foreground  of  these  several  sketches 
— to  treat  what  I  will  call  the  nation  of  the  Great  Yal- 
ley,  as  one  ;  to  follow  its  history  from  the  end  of  the 
series  of  delineations  I  have  given,  down  to  the  pre 
sent  ;  and  to  essay  the  far  more  venturesome  task  of 
tracing  some  outline,  or  I  should  rather  say  of 
indulging  in  some  dream — of  its  unknown  future. 

In  thus  attempting  to  fix  the  collective  traits  and 
total  significance  of  the  Yalley  and  its  people,  let 
me  ask  the  reader  first  to  observe  what  that  people 
is ;  what  manner  of  race  of  men  is  that  of  the  Yal 
ley.  "We  have  already  studied  them  by  classes,  and 
by  thought ;  but  what  are  they  historically — ethno- 
logically  ? 

It  is  a  most  ancient  practice,  to  begin  every  his 
tory  at  the  Creation — a  practice  honored  by  great 
votaries,  from  the  times  of  the  antique  chroniclers  of 
Germany,  and  the  monkish  Latin  historians  of  the 
middle  ages,  down  to  that  eminent  authority,  Herr 
Professor  von  Poddingkopf,  so  delightfully  cited  by 
the  most  eminent  and  the  latest  departed  of  all  the 
American  prose  writers,  the  genial  and  beloved 
Irving.  But  I  shall  not  go  back  so  far ;  not  quite 
back  to  the  flood. 

In  Africa  and  in  Asia,  and  in  America  too,  there 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  433 

have  existed  civilizations  more  or  less  exalted  in 
grade,  and  lasting  in  endurance.  But  the  works  of 
the  mound-builders  of  the  West — for  our  cycle  of 
allusions  may  begin  at  the  very  point  whither  it  is 
at  last  to  bring  us — and  the  Aztecs  of  the  south,  the 
Egyptians  and  Ethiopians,  the  Assyrians,  Persians, 
Hindoos,  Chinese — all  the  monuments  of  their  arts 
and  arms,  their  codes  of  laws  and  systems  of  thought, 
have  passed  either  into  utter  oblivion,  complete  de 
struction,  a  stiff  immovable  catalepsy  not  deserving 
the  name  of  life,  or  a  superannuated  and  decrepit 
age. 

But  that  race,  whatever  its  earlier  designations, 
which  was  the  parent  of  the  various  European 
families  of  men,  possessed  higher  qualities.  It  may 
not  have  been  superior  to  others  in  stature,  or  strength, 
or  beauty,  in  force  or  acuteness  of  intellect,  perhaps 
not  always  in  purity  of  morals  or  in  religious  truth. 
But  in  one  thing  it  has  demonstrated  itself  superior : 
in  the  capacity  of  unlimited  and  universal  improve 
ment.  Through  the  vicissitudes  of  ages,  under  num 
berless  phases  of  development,  and  despite  many 
periods  of  torpidity  and  even  of  retrogression,  one 
people  has  as  it  were  evolved  from  within  itself  ano 
ther,  and  always  a  better. 

The  genius  of  civilization,  having  done  his  utmost 
with  Egyptains  and  Assyrians,  led  the  Greeks  and 
the  Romans  to  far  higher  summits  of  intellectual 

19 


4:34  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

achievement  and  of  ethical  knowledge.  Then  Chris 
tianity,  in  like  manner,  after  experiment  and  failure 
in  Asia,  transferred  the  centres  of  her  dominion 
to  European  soil.  From  the  Christian  Era,  the 
history  of  Europe  is  the  history  of  human  progress. 
Among  the  nations  of  Europe,  the  Germanic  civiliza 
tion  has  been  of  a  higher  moral  tone  and  a  more 
deeply  formed  institutional  character,  than  the  Latin. 
And  of  the  Germanic  nations,  that  branch  which 
became  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  then  the  English, 
stands  this  day  foremost  of  all.  And — now  at  last 
returning  to  this  continent — the  Anglo-American 
nation,  a  new  nation,  is  evolved  as  it  were  from 
within  the  bosom  of  the  English  nation,  by  that 
strange  process  which,  a  long  array  of  precedents 
assures  us,  places  every  such  latest-born  people  upon 
a  higher  level  of  existence  than  that  of  its  parent — 
there  to  exemplify  some  still  greater  principle, 
to  teach  some  still  loftier  lesson  of  destiny  and  of 
progress.  Last  of  all,  there  has  arisen  within  this 
mighty  Yalley,  streaming  over  the  bordering  Alle- 
ghanies,  pushing  westward  by  the  Bide  of  the  great 
northern  Lakes,  disembarking  on  the  sandy  shore  of 
the  Gulf,  or  struggling  up  the  yellow  flood  of  the 
Mississippi,  yet  one  more  nation  within  a  nation; 
and  now  in  the  basin  of  the  Great  River  is  abiding 
and  increasing  a  multitude  already  numerous  enough 
to  wield  the  political  destinies  of  our  land,  and  in 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  435 

possession  of  opportunities  never  before  in  reach  of 
any  human  community  on  this  earth,  for  achieving 
eminence  in  all  that  humanity  desires  of  happiness, 
nobility  and  goodness. 

In  historic  descent  these  are  the  foremost  children 
of  men ;  the  youngest  sons,  the  Benjamins  of  old 
mother  earth ;  and  truly  they  are  planted  in  a  heri 
tage  well  worthy  of  a  parent's  or  a  brother's  partial 
fondness.  As  Benjamin's  mess  was  five  times  that  of 
any  of  his  brethren,  so  is  the  vast  and  fair  domain  of 
the  Mississippi  Yalley — including  as  it  naturally  does 
the  Gulf  States — three  times  as  extensive  as  the  At 
lantic  slope,  and  somewhat  less  than  twice  as  exten 
sive  as  the  third  great  natural  division  of  our  terri 
tory,  the  Pacific  slope.  I  need  not  compare  its 
wealth  of  soil  and  climate  and  rivers  and  metals,  to 
theirs. 

God  reserved  this  goodly  land  for  those  who  hold 
it  now.  Many  were  the  bold  voyagers  of  antiquity ; 
but  none  until  Columbus  was  directed  across  the 
western  sea  to  America.  Enough  there  were  of  hardy 
explorers  among  the  sons  of  Spain,  and  enough  of 
wise  and  strong  men,  able  to  found  and  to  govern 
new  kingdoms ;  but  none  of  them  were  to  establish 
themselves  here.  The  traders  and  the  soldiery  of 
France  were  many  and  hardy  and  brave,  and  her 
Jesuits  and  Franciscans,  with  all  the  zeal  that  the 
Jove  of  souls  and  the  desire  of  martyrdom  could 


436  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

inspire,  labored  for  years  among  the  forest  tribes ; 
and  the  pliant  genius  and  dextrous  skill  of  her  set 
tlers  almost  fused  the  civilized  and  savage  nations 
into  one.  But  this  splendid  domain  was  not  for 
France.  Nor  was  it  even  to  become  a  colony  of  the 
British  empire ;  a  possession  of  the  resolute  Anglo- 
Saxon  men,  who,  if  any  of  the  European  kingdoms, 
were  fitted  to  hold  and  to  govern  it.  All  these 
claimants,  one  after  another,  sought  to  establish  a 
title ;  but  each  and  every  claim  was  disallowed  by 
him  who  ruleth  both  the  affairs  of  the  children  of 
men  and  the  armies  of  heaven.  This  land  was  not  a 
land  for  Spain,  nor  France  nor  England.  A  separate 
race  had  been  elected  and  consecrated  to  the  sublime 
task  of  redeeming  its  vast  expanse  from  solitude  and 
barbarism;  of  conquering  it  for  a  cultivated  hu 
manity  ;  of  making  it  the  home  of  happy  multi 
tudes  ;  a  broad  foundation  for  God's  church ;  a  new 
field  for  the  solution  of  man's  threefold  problem,  his 
relations  to  God,  to  the  earth,  and  to  his  neighbor. 
Neither  the  spirit  of  effete  feudalism,  nor  the  stron 
ger  spirit  of  a  ceremonial  church ;  neither  the  des 
potic  power  of  a  monarchy  ruling  under  the  civil 
law,  nor  the  irresponsible  destructive  sway  of  any 
band  of  greedy  traders,  was  to  possess  the  new  realm  ; 
but  that  strong  off-shoot  of  the  noble  old  Anglo- 
Saxon  stem,  which  has  well  been  called  the  Anglo- 
American,  was  to  have  and  to  rule  it ;  and  a  long 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  437 

and  severe  discipline  was  that  which  had  prepared  it. 
The  people  of  England,  rising  slowly  and  stubbornly 
upward  from  the  slavery  of  the  Norman  conquest ; 
helped  unconsciously  and  unintentionally  by  the 
extorted  gift  of  the  Great  Charter ;  beginning  to  con 
trol  even  the  brutal  bull-dog  strength  of  the  Tudor 
monarchs;  then  rising  and  slaying  a  senselessly 
oppressive  king — a  people  taught  by  the  sweet 
sounds  of  old  Chaucer ;  around  whose  path  had  been 
thrown  the  strange  and  mystic  imaginings  of  Spenser ; 
who  had  listened  to  the  "  native  wood-notes  wild,"  of 
Shakspeare;  and  who  had  found  even  a  nobler  poet, 
and  a  fearless  and  mighty  defender,  in  John  Milton  ; 
who  had  learned  wisdom  of  Francis  Bacon ;  whose 
imaginations  and  consciences  were  at  once  entranced 
and  convinced  by  the  wondrous  spiritual  dream  of 
Banyan ;  and  whose  reason  had  been  instructed  by 
the  clear  understanding  and  acute  philosophy  of 
Locke  :  this  people  had  here  and  there  ripened  to  the 
point  of  capacity  and  desire  for  self-government, 
under  the  double  and  opposite  stimulus  of  the  lasting 
Puritan  leaven  which  the  Reformation  had  diffused 
in  England,  and  of  the  grinding  and  intensifying 
tyranny  of  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts. 

Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  there  went  out  from  Eng 
land  that  small  body  of  strong  men,  who  "  builded 
wiser  than  they  knew,"  and  founded  this  nation. 
Well  trained  in  cool  self-reliance,  iron  courage, 


438  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEKS   AND   PEOPLE 

impregnable  perseverance ;  strong  and  ready  of  hand 
and  of  heart,  wise  in  thought,  learned  in  that  phi 
losophy  which  is  most  readily  transmuted  into  right 
and  efficient  action,  and  above  all,  clothed  and  pene 
trated  and  borne  onward  by  a  strength  incredible  to 
those  not  of  them,  the  strength  of  Faith  in  God — they 
sailed  away  across  the  sea.  "With  all  these  high  and 
noble  traits,  unconsciously  the  greatest  statesmen  on 
earth,  having  prepared  the  iron  pillars  of  their  little 
nation,  of  a  hundred  men  in  their  ship,  they  landed  in 
America,  with  the  fabric  of  their  church  and  State 
all  ready  prepared  for  erection. 

And  as  in  after  years  the  posterity  of  these  small 
colonies  entered  within  the  vast  inland  realm  of 
which  I  am  speaking — as  the  hostile  savages  faded 
away,  and  the  forests  began  to  fall,  and  the  sunlight 
to  work  its  wondrous  chemistries  upon  the  wealthy 
soil  beneath,  and  bountiful  mother  Earth  bared  her 
bosom  to  the  plough  and  hoe — how  marvellously  did 
that  Providence  which  had  planted  them  there,  provide 
one  aid  after  another,  coordinate  with  the  increasing 
needs  of  the  increasing  nation ! 

Small  centres  of  inhabitants,  feeble,  unconnected, 
isolated,  mere  points  of  crystallization  upon  the  vast 
expanse,  lie  like  distant  dots  along  the  great  rivers,  or 
in  the  wide  woods.  It  is  intercourse  that  consoli 
dates  a  nation.  Life  blood  must  circulate.  A  huge 
inert  overgrown  body  dies  of  mere  magnitude.  But 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  439 

how  shall  this  indispensable  need  be  supplied? 
Antiquity  hath  no  answer  to  the  problem,  or  the 
Boman  empire  might  have  held  together.  Modern 
science  has  no  suggestion  to  make :  horses  and  men 
are  the  swiftest  and  strongest  messengers,  except  the 
inconstant,  treacherous  winds.  But  James  Watt 
studied  the  boiling  of  a  teakettle,  and  as  in  the 
oriental  tale  there  rose  up  from  the  thin  vapor  of  a 
sealed  jug  a  mighty  giant,  so  did  the  genius  of  the 
Scotch  mechanician  evolve  from  the  vapors  of  that 
mean  vessel  the  superhuman  might  of  the  steam 
engine.  Then  one  of  our  own  countrymen,  laying  in 
turn  his  modifying  hand  upon  the  volatile  essence  of 
fire  and  water,  constrains  its  giant  strength  into  the 
service  of  the  steamboat — and  the  wants  of  the  nation 
of  the  valley  are  supplied!  Again,  as  population 
thickens  and  wealth  increases,  and  men  begin  more 

*  C? 

and  more,  after  the  mysterious  word  of  the  prophet, 
to  go  to  and  fro  in  the  earth,  Robert  Stephenson 
invents  the  locomotive  ;  and  straightway  the  hurry 
ing  millions  of  the  Valley,  no  longer  confined  to  the 
channels  of  the  rivers,  flit  over  the  mountains  or 
through  them  and  across  the  plain,  on  that  stronger 
and  closer  network  of  civilization,  and  of  interwoven 
civic  strength,  the  railroad.  And  last  of  all,  within 
these  last  years  we  have  the  electric  telegraph,  which 
may  fitly  be  likened  to  that  great  system  called  the 
sympathetic  nerve,  which  flashes  hither  and  thither 


440  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

through  the  body  the  constant  sustaining  streams 
of  unconscious  life ;  which  maintains  the  health  and 
action  of  all  the  wondrous  processes,  and  keeps  all 
alive,  but  which  the  imperial,  central,  conscious  will 
cannot  reach.  For  so  does  the  little  telegraphic  wire, 
flashing  endless  communication  hither  and  thither  all 
over  the  land,  hold  us,  mind  with  mind,  in  a  compre 
hensive,  indissoluble  unitary  life.  Ah,  it  is  in  such 
pecuniary  enterprises  as  these,  set  up  in  the  fervent 
worship  of  Mammon,  that  we  shall  find  a  power,  all 
quiet  and  unrecognized,  but  with  all  the  unimaginable 
strength  of  a  truly  Divine  messenger,  infinitely  more 
potent  against  the  rising  yells  of  that  infernal  army 
of  Disunion,  this  day  thickening  around  us,  than  in 
any  such  old  world  fancies  as  patriotism  and  humanity, 
justice  and  forbearance ! 

Nor  has  less  wisdom  or  kindness  been  shown  in 
providing  for  the  needs  of  the  intellectual  and  reli 
gious  faculties.  I  have  already  referred  to  the  zeal 
and  intrepid  perseverance  of  the  ancient  Catholic 
missionaries,  whose  not  unworthy  successors,  Father 
De  Smet,  Bishop  Blanchet  and  their  brethren  are  still 
faithfully  and  efficiently  laboring  among  the  fierce 
tribes  of  the  distant  Northwest,  I  have  also  spoken 
of  the  Protestant  missionaries  who  quickly  followed 
on  over  the  mountains,  to  look  after  their  small  flocks 
in  the  wilderness.  The  minister  and  the  schoolmas 
ter  were  provided,  as  the  rising  generation  began  to 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  441 

need  their  aid.  The  fierce  stern  exigencies  of  their 
perilous  life  in  the  wilderness  trained  them  in  quick 
ness  of  eye  and  readiness  of  hand,  in  prompt  and 
lofty  courage,  in  fruitfulness  of  resource  and  a  hardy 
self-reliant  perseverance  that  never  yielded.  While 
thus  the  hard  school  of  necessity  trained  them,  by 
rude,  incessant,  inevitable  lessons,  into  a  rough  but 
noble  strength,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  teacher  and  of 
the  missionary,  not  so  much  to  excite  the  forces  of 
nerve  and  soul — for  that  external  stimulus  so  com 
monly  needed  elsewhere  had  here  been  supplied  by 
nature  and  the  wilderness  and  the  savage,  and  mind 
and  soul  were  here  all  awake,  full  of  force  and  acti 
vity — but  to  direct,  to  moderate,  to  restrain.  The 
work  is  prosperously  in  progress.  The  school-houses, 
log-built  and  humble  though  they  were,  have  yet 
been  the  centres  of  a  continual  and  increasing  diffu 
sion  of  knowledge  and  of  goodness.  In  those 
obscure  edifices,  all  the  week,  the  teacher  led  his 
youthful  charge  in  the  paths  of  learning ;  and  on  the 
seventh  day,  the  same  lowly  building  became  the 
sanctuary  of  the  Most  High,  and  the  backwoods 
preacher  expounded  to  the  same  children  and  to 
their  parents  also,  the  message  of  God,  preparing 
them  both  for  this  life  and  for  that  which  is  to  come. 
But  in  thus  seeking  to  sketch  the  characteristic 
elements  of  the  people  of  the  Great  Yalley,  I  must 
not  omit  to  allude  to  one  important  feature,  viz.,  the 
19* 


442  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

mingled  currents  of  its  blood.  The  main  stock  is 
Anglo-Saxon.  Important  infusions  of  Scotch  and 
Irish  blood  were  in  the  veins  of  very  many  of  its 
best  and  bravest  men.  There  has  always  been  some 
small  admixture  from  amongst  the  French  of  Illinois 
and  Louisiana.  Scarce  a  tinge  of  Spanish  blood  can 
be  traced.  On  one  of  the  outskirts  or  appendages 
of  the  Valley — the  peninsula  of  Florida — a  colony 
of  fifteen  hundred  Greeks  was  once  planted,  whose 
blood  still  runs  in  the  veins  of  some  of  the  best  fami 
lies  of  St.  Augustine.  A  somewhat  more  diffused 
intermixture  may  be  followed,  from  those  Huguenot 
French  who  settled  along  the  Atlantic  coast  from 
Boston  to  Charleston.  Great  numbers  of  Germans 
have  long  contributed  toward  this  miscellaneous 
national  stock  the  solid  or  the  graceful  traits  of  the 
old  Teutonic  character.  In  the  North  may  be  traced 
colonies  of  Norwegians,  of  Dutch,  a  few  Swedes  and 
Danes.  There  has  been  no  perceptible  addition  of 
Italian  blood ;  nor  of  that  of  the  Aborigines ;  for 
the  border  intercourse  of  centuries  has  been  bloody 
and  murderous,  with  a  strange,  sad  uniformity.  No 
modification  is  yet  visible,  and  let  us  hope  that  none 
will  be,  from  the  last  strange  immigration  of  brutal 
Chinamen  to  our  distant  Pacific  coast. 

And  thus  we  find  the  western  people  to-day,  not 
one  of  those  pure  races  whose  uniform  destiny  seems 
to  be  to  disappear,  but  a  community  of  bloods  rather 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  443 

than  a  race,  one  of  those  homogeneous  mixtures  of 
character  not  found  except  in  these  latter  days  of  his 
tory,  whose  value  and  power  amongst  the  great 
republic  of  nations  no  precedents  enable  us  to  ascer 
tain,  but  for  whom  there  are  many  reasons  to  antici 
pate  a  grand  and  noble  future. 

Having  thus  endeavored  to  represent  the  original 
and  added  constituents  of  the  People  of  the  Great  Val 
ley,  let  us  next  observe  them  and  their  landed  common 
wealths,  at  the  point  to  which  they  have  now  attained. 

Imagine,  therefore,  a  spectator — yourself,  if  you 
will — with  an  ideal  vision  broad  and  keen  enough  to 
embrace  and  discern  so  much,  and  lifted  high  up  in 
air,  even  so  that  you  may  look  far  abroad  over  all  the 
Great  Yalley,  and  those  adjuncts  or  appendixes  which 
naturally  and  politically  belong  with  it,  namely  the 
Gulf  States  and  Michigan.  And  observe,  being  in 
spirit  with  this  visionary  beholder  of  mine,  the  mul 
tiplied  features  of  power  and  grandeur  presented  to 
your  eye.  From  the  white  and  sunny  sands  of  Flo- 
ridian  Cape  Sable  and  the  sea-washed  little  Wreck 
City  of  Key  West,  to  the  cold  remote  northwestern 
village  of  wintry  log-built  forest-circled  Pembina 
and  the  improvised  mining  towns  of  Aurora  and 
Denver,  raised  as  it  were  in  a  night  by  the  strong 
sorcery  of  Mammon  on  barren  hill-sides  all  treeless 
and  forlorn :  from  smoke-canopied  Pittsburg,  grimy 
dwelling  of  forges  and  mills,  on  the  antique  site  of 


4:4:4:  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

vanished  Fort  Du  Quesne,  to  the  struggling  semi- 
prosperous  frontier  town  of  Brownsville,  where 
Texans  look  with  faces  sour  and  contemptuous,  yet 
eager  and  expectant,  to  the  wide  territories  of  Mexico, 
and  where  there  seems  to  prevail  a  chronic  border 
warfare,  the  frictional  irritation  between  chafing 
races  :  from  the  skirting  Alleghanies  on  the  east  to 
the  interrupted  but  sufficient  ramparts  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  in  the  West,  and  from  the  warm  blue  of 
the  salt  Gulf  to  the  cooler  waters  and  hues  of  the 
great  northern  chain  of  fresh-water  seas:  over  all 
this  vast  domain,  grown  up  to  its  present  level  of 
magnificent  power  within  three-quarters  of  a  century 
— the  lifetime  of  one  man — how  wonderful,  how 
mighty,  how  complicated,  are  the  masses  and  forms 
and  movements  of  human  life  and  labor ! 

Twelve  millions  of  souls  are  fulfilling  their  desti 
nies  within  the  space  of  this  great  panorama  ; 
belonging  to  sixteen  sovereign  States,  and  five 
younger  sisters — Territories,  some  of  them  already 
impatiently  knocking  at  the  doors  of  Congress  for 
admission  into  the  Union  of  their  elder  sisters ;  and 
if  I  do  not  add  to  this  number  that  of  their  brethren 
beyond  the  western  mountains,  the  half-million  and 
more  of  California,  and  the  thousands  of  Utah,  and 
Oregon  and  Washington  Territory,  it  is  for  the 
sake  of  geographical  rather  than  logical  correctness, 
for  those  Pacific  States  are  most  properly  out- 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  445 

skirts,  suburbs,  advanced  posts  of  the  great  hive  of 
men  in  the  Yalley. 

Amid  this  vast  and  busy  throng  of  men  whose 
multiplied  labors  have  already  done  so  much  to 
change  the  dark  unbroken  forest,  and  silent  open 
prairie  into  a  garden  of  God,  are  efficiently  operating 
the  manifold  engineries  of  civilized  life.  To  and  fro, 
along  the  thousands  of  miles  of  the  vast  river  system, 
are  rushing  a  thousand  steamers,  from  eleven  hundred 
tons  burden  downward,  in  place  of  the  little  awk 
ward  Orleans,  of  a  hundred  tons,  launched  by  Fulton 
and  Livingston  at  Pittsburg,  in  1812.  The  lake  fleet, 
over  and  above  this,  is  of  twelve  hundred  vessels  and 
more ;  and  from  the  great  southern  marts  of  the 
Valley,  another  vast  auxiliary  ocean  fleet  brings  in 
or  bears  away  an  annual  mass  of  imports  and  exports 
of  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars. 
The  network  of  railroads  has  but  barely  begun  to 
knit  itself  through  and  over  a  few  portions  of  the 
Valley ;  but  this  beginning  is  a  giant  one.  Over 
thirteen  thousand  miles  of  railroad,  the  more  eager 
spirits  of  the  Valley  fly  hither  and  thither  on  errands 
of  business,  or  affection,  or  pleasure. 

In  1776,  the  Baptist  John  Hickman  first  began  to 
labor  as  a  Protestant  minister  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 
JSTow,  in  seventeen  thousand  churches,  of  twenty  sects, 
the  Word  of  God  is  statedly  dispensed  to  an  average 
of  something  like  five  millions  of  regular  hearers. 


4:4-6  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

When  or  where  the  first  log  school-house  was 
erected,  and  the  first  little  platoon  of  recruits  of 
learning 

"  Discharged  their  a-b  ab's  against  the  dame," 

— or  master,  I  cannot  say,  except  that  it  was  within 
the  last  eighty  years.  But  now,  a  hundred  and  fifty 
colleges  crown  woody  heights,  or  shelter  themselves 
in  retired  valleys ;  and  in  these,  and  in  fifty  thousand 
public  and  private  schools,  nearly  two  millions  of 
youth  are  receiving  a  moral  and  intellectual  train 
ing  whose  depth,  and  breadth,  and  thoroughness  is 
yearly  greater,  and  which  yearly  better  prepares  its 
graduates  to  plunge  out  into  the  great  battle  of  life — 
to  perform  wisely  and  well  his  or  her  single  duty  as 
a  citizen  or  a  wife. 

Once  more :  let  me  repeat  a  few  similar  statistics — 
dry  kernels,  but,  to  a  reflective  mind,  nevertheless, 
the  seeds  of  infinite  conceptions  of  grandeur  and 
beauty — relative  to  one  section  of  the  great  domain 
of  the  Yalley — the  Northwest.  This  is  the  tract 
between  the  Ohio,  the  Lakes,  and  the  Mississippi, 
which  contains  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
square  miles,  and  which  Washington,  who  early 
owned  lands  within  it,  called  a  " western  world" 

A  hundred  years  ago — in  1751 — it  contained  five 
little  French  towns,  with  about  one  thousand  inhabi 
tants,  all  nestled  down  together,  like  a  little  group  of 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  447 

timid  lambs,  within  a  hidden  valley  in  the  southwest 
of  Illinois — and  no  other  European  settlements.  The 
first  State  admitted  into  the  Union  from  it  was  Ohio, 
in  1802.  The  earliest  English  settlements  within 
Ohio  were  made  in  1774,  but  none  was  of  any  im 
portance  until  the  settlement  of  Marietta,  in  1788, 
when  the  English  inhabitants  may  have  numbered 
five  thousand.  Little  more  than  three-quarters  of  a 
century  has  passed,  and  into  what  gigantic  propor 
tions  has  this  section  of  the  great  Valley  already 
grown !  Five  great  States  occupy  its  territory ;  not 
less  than  seven  millions  of  people  inhabit  it ;  every 
year  its  farms  produce  not  far  from  three  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  in  value ;  its  mines,  eighty  mil 
lions  ;  its  lumber,  seventy  millions ;  its  twenty  thou 
sand  and  more  of  manufactories,  a  hundred  and  thirty 
millions;  its  fisheries,  three  millions.  It  has  nine 
thousand  miles  and  more  of  railroads ;  fourteen  hun 
dred  miles  of  canals ;  seven  thousand  miles  of  tele 
graph.  It  contains  two  hundred  banks,  with  twenty 
millions  of  capital.  Its  whole  material  extent,  real 
and  personal  property  together,  is  reckoned  to  be 
worth  more  than  one  and  three-quarters  'billions  of 
dollars. 

But  this  startling  expansion  is  not  to  be  reckoned 
by  business  and  statistics  alone.  The  Northwest  has 
built  eight  thousand  churches,  which  will  hold  four 
millions  of  people ;  fifty  colleges,  and  twenty-five 


448  PIONEERS,    PEEACHEBS    AND   PEOPLE 

thousand  schools,  where  are  studying  a  million  and  a 
half  of  pupils;  and  it  supports  a  thousand  news 
papers,  twelve  hundred  libraries  more  or  less  public, 
and  scientific  and  literary  societies  innumerable. 

Again,  a  yet  more  wondrous  exemplification  of 
the  exuberant,  gigantic  vital  strength  of  this  great 
inland  realm  is  afforded  by  the  growth  of  its  cities. 
In  former  ages  of  the  world,  many  enormous  cities 
were  raised  up  by  despotic  power,  or  increased  during 
centuries  by  a  slow  process  of  accretion.  But  in  our 
great  Valley  it  is  as  if  the  strong,  rich  soil  gave  birth 
to  the  sudden  vastness  of  the  marts,  that  rise  almost 
like  exhalations  on  lake-side  and  river-bank.  A 
proud  and  glorious  instance  do  they  furnish  of  the 
superiority  of  the  power  of  a  free  and  enterprising 
people,  over  the  spiritless,  slavish  obedience  of  Asiatic 
subjects,  or  of  monarchical  conservatisms. 

Across  the  northern  portion  of  the  great  Valley,  if 
you  glance  upon  the  map,  you  can  easily  trace  two 
great  lines  of  cities  dotting,  like  great  jewels,  the 
chain  of  trade  and  intercourse  between  East  and 
West.  The  northern  line,  from  Buffalo  by  Cleveland 
and  Detroit,  ends  at  Chicago;  the  southern  line 
begins  with  Pittsburg,  and  extends,  by  Cincinnati 
and  Louisville,  to  St.  Louis.  The  nine  cities  of  the 
first  have  increased  their  total  population,  during  the 
last  ten  years,  from  159,000  to  454,000  ;  and  the  nine 
of  the  second  line,  during  the  same  period,  from 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  449 

335,000  to  600,000.  The  most  wondrous  of  them  all, 
Chicago,  which  in  1840  had  4,800  inhabitants — 
which  in  1830  had  TO  inhabitants — had  last  year 
125,000. 

In  what  other  way  could  I  set  before  you  what  the 
Mississippi  Yalley  now  is  ?  Mere  statistics,  you  wiK 
say ;  uninteresting  figures ;  dry  bones  of  information, 
But,  as  I  said  before,  it  is  these  very  figures  which 
are,  if  rightly  viewed,  instinct  with  whatever  is  grand 
and  marvellous.  Within  this  brief  period — for  one 
human  life,  long  though  it  may  be,  is  brief  enough 
compared  with  the  age  of  this  world — within  this 
brief  period,  the  Nation  of  the  Yalley  has  grown  up 
with  such  a  portentous  speed  and  strength  as  reminds 
us  of  that  gigantic  fountain  wThich  pours  suddenly  a 
full-grown  river  from  the  unknown  caverns  of  the 
lower  earth :  from  nothing,  to  myriads  of  souls  ;  from 
nothing,  to  millions  of  money ;  from  nothing,  to  an 
infinity  of  strength  and  power,  and  to  a  high  grade 
of  culture  and  excellence.  Thus  I  state  the  summary, 
by  comparisons,  in  general  terms.  But  it  is  the 
scries  of  arithmetical  numbers  that  affords  the  most 
tangible  basis  for  thought — the  firmest  and  clearest, 
and,  indeed,  the  only  valuable  conceptions,  upon 
such  a  point  as  this. 

And  now  I  have  passed  over  two  parts  of  this  sum 
ming  up.  I  have  examined  this  western  race,  and 
inquired  what  is  it  by  blood  and  by  constituent  parts ; 


450  PIONEEKS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

and  I  have  sought  to  indicate,  by  dint  of  some  mathe 
matical  totals,  some  general  idea  of  what  it  is  now,  in 
number,  strength,  and  attainment.  And  it  remains 
to  essay  a  more  dangerous  task — to  speak  of  its 
future.  I  am  no  prophet,-  either,  to  promise  good 
things,  or  to  threaten  evil ;  nor  do  I  pretend  to  any 
wonderful  measure,  even  of  merely  human  prescience. 
All  that  I  venture  to  attempt  is,  to  state  obvious 
meanings  of  visible  phenomena — of  those  indications 
which  the  great  Master  of  Life  has  given  to  us  on 
purpose  that  we  might  reason  on  them  and  conclude 
from  them. 

The  Yalley  is  to  be,  as  it  has  been,  a  great  harbor 
of  refuge  for  the  poor  and  oppressed  of  other  lands. 
It  is  the  rightful  glory  of  our  Anglo-American  race 
to  have  opened  welcoming  arms  to  the  refugees  of 
every  nation.  ISTo  thought  of  selfish  isolation  ever 
entered  the  hearts  of  the  men  that  inhabit  the 
unparalleled  region  of  the  West.  They  justly  felt 
that  union  and  cooperation,  not  isolation  and  exclu- 
siveness,  is  the  principle  of  human  progress.  The 
Gentile  Tyrian,  ever  under  the  stern  and  uncom 
promising  polity  of  the  Jewish  theocracy,  brought  his 
tribute  of  skill  and  of  splendid  gifts  to  the  great 
temple  of  Solomon ;  Ophir  sent  its  gold,  the  far  Indies 
their  precious  stones ;  and  Candace,  queen  of 
Ethiopia,  from  the  furthest  ends  of  the  earth,  came 
on  an  acceptable  pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  of  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 


5A 


Hebrews'  God  and  the  throne  of  the  Hebrew  king. 
All  commerce,  all  agriculture,  all  art,  laid  their  con 
tributions  upon  the  hallowed  mount  where  God's 
home  was  builded  of  old.  And  thus  to-day,  in  this 
vaster  and  immeasurably  more  wondrous  temple — 
this  great  edifice  of  free  civil  and  religious  polity 
the  strength  and  beauty  of  the  wealthy  Yalley — shall 
all  people  and  all  tongues  worship,  and  offer  upon 
its  altars  their  various  offerings,  of  all  the  good  gifts 
with  which  God  has  endowed  them.  Principally, 
these  thronging  thousands  contribute  of  their  physical 
strength.  Canals  are  to  be  digged ;  railroads  to  be 
builded ;  all  that  mass  of  material  improvements  to 
be  perfected,  which  is  the  dream  of  the  practical 
statesmanship  of  our  Union.  These  are  needed 
before  our  land  shall  attain  its  ideal  condition  of  a 
totality  of  natural  gifts  and  forces,  modified  by 
human  skill — ere  it  will  yield  the  greatest  possible 
amount  of  fruits  to  its  people.  And  thus  have  long 
been  pouring  in  the  legions  of  a  great  industrial  army, 
from  Ireland,  Germany,  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark, 
Holland ;  the  men  whose  strong  arms  and  laborious 
habits  render  them  competent  to  execute  precisely 
those  masses  of  mere  detail  and  drudgery  so  neces 
sary  to  the  broad  schemes  of  the  Anglo-American 
brain,  but  so  distasteful  to  his  preferences  for  mental 
labor,  for  organizing,  for  directing ;  for  thinking,  iu 
short,  that  others  may  do.  It  is  this  long  succession 


452  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND   PEOPLE 

of  immigrants  which,  most  singularly  marks  the  wis 
dom  of  that  mighty  Hand  which  guides  the  fates  of 
the  Yalley.  The  first  generation  furnishes  lahorers. 
But  their  children,  half-children  of  the  soil,  and 
receiving  the  powerful  impress  of  the  invigorating 
new  world,  and  of  its  active  minds,  at  once  rise 
upward  and  become  farmers  or  mechanics;  while 
the  cohorts  of  the  railroad  and  the  scattered  ranks  of 
hired  laborers  are  recruited  from  new  arrivals. 

Yet,  again,  the  same  over-ruling  wisdom  provided 
that  this  innumerable  host  of  people,  of  strange  man 
ners  and  religion,  would  not  find  the  portals  of  the 
Yalley  thrown  open  to  them  until  the  great  pillars 
of  its  commonwealth — its  religious  and  political 
forms — were  powerfully  and  permanently  adjusted. 
Not  until  the  proper  and  distinctive  Anglo-American 
forms  of  worship  and  of  society  were  already  received 
and  vigorously  in  operation,  did  the  foreign  bands  find 
room  for  the  soles  of  their  feet.  Then,  after  the  new 
people  had  grown  large  enough  and  strong  enough 
for  the  action  of  the  peculiar  power  of  absorption  and 
integration  with  itself  which  marks  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  came  the  gradual  influx  of  the  strangers,  pour 
ing  steadily  in,  fusing  and  disappearing  within  the 
ranks  of  the  host  already  there. 

Nearly  four-fifths  of  the  foreign  population  of  our 
country  has  arrived  upon  our  shores  since  1830 ;  and 
more  than  half  of  its  total  of  three  millions,  since 


OF  THE   MISSISSIPPI.  453 

1840.  Yet  how  few  are  those  who  apprehend  any 
danger  to  our  nation  or  to  its  valuable  traits  or  pri 
vileges,  from  this  great  transfusion  of  new  blood ! 
Who  needs  to  doubt  or  to  fear  for  our  future  ?  Many, 
at  different  times,  have  been  terrified  at  the  ruin  sup 
posed  to  await  the  land  from  the  spread  of  Romanism 
and  of  its  attendant  civil  despotisms  among  us.  But 
how  groundless  an  apprehension !  When  Jesuitism 
had  the  land  all  to  itself,  it  was  unable  to  keep  it. 
Rome,  unopposed,  backed  by  the  throne  of  France, 
aided  by  the  subtlest  diplomacy,  the  greatest  generals, 
the  wisest  statesmen,  long  endeavored  to  retain  her 
hold  upon  the  soil — but  in  vain.  And  when  she  thus 
failed,  is  it  for  a  moment  to  be  supposed  that  she 
could  succeed  now  ?  Instead  of  the  scattered  super 
stitious  barbarians,  herded  into  the  priestly  fold  by 
the  Catholic  missionaries,  and  with  but  little  more 
consciousness  of  why  it  was  done  than  so  many  cat 
tle  would  have  had,  they  must  now  encounter  a 
population  ten  thousand  fold  greater,  intelligent, 
acute,  trained  in  beliefs  and — what  is  much  more — 
in  feelings,  instincts  and  modes  of  thought  and  action 
expressly  opposed  or  utterly  foreign  to  them ;  large, 
broad  modes  of  mental  action  which  their  little  hier 
archic  formulas  can  neither  contain  nor  cope  with  ; 
the  vivid  force  of  that  shrewd  circumspect  self-relf- 
ance  which  has  been  nurtured  by  the  strong  youth 
and  toilsome  adventurous  manhood  of  the  West ;  the 


454  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

unwearied,  incessant,  increasing  flow  of  knowledge; 
of  goodness,  of  purity,  of  intellectual  force,  supplied 
from  so  many  thousands  of  fountains,  in  school-house, 
college,  and  church.  Is  it  to  be  feared  that  such 
men  as  the  Eomanists  will  reduce  the  "West  beneath 
the  sway  of  the  Papacy?  Shall  we  not  rather 
ingulf  and  assimilate  them,  priests,  churches,  com 
municants  and  all  ?  Can  the  Roman  Bishop  rule  the 
huge  and  rapid  waves  of  this  great  ocean  of  human 
life?  It  was  only  Christ  whose  word  made  the 
winds  to  cease  and  the  sea  to  be  calm ; — even  the 
apostle,  essaying  to  pass  to  his  Master,  would  have 
sunk  for  lack  of  faith; — and  surely,  surely  these 
deceived  apostles  of  a  mistaken  faith  will  quickly 
disappear  beneath  the  swelling  flood. 

For  my  own  part,  I  have  no  fear.  It  is  true  that 
once  I  spoke  in  the  usual  glowing  terms,  of  the  great 
battle  of  Armageddon  that  was  to  be  fought  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  of  the  dangers  to 
which  freedom  was  then  to  be  exposed  from  the  on 
slaughts  and  invasions  of  foreigners  and  Romanists. 
But  study  and  observation  have  convinced  me  to  the 
contrary.  How  frequent  is  the  remark,  even  among 
Romanists  themselves,  that  their  church  only  keeps 
the  immigrating  generation !  The  first  comers  may 
themselves  ever  remain  faithful  and  subservient  sons 
of  the  church.  But  the  attachment  of  their  children 
is  feeble  and  wavering;  the  grandchildren  almost 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  455 

always  lapse  from  their  connection  with  it,  and  the 
fourth  generation  are  commonly  embosomed  within 
some  Protestant  organization.  No  ;  Romanists  will 
never  change  us.  We  shall  assimilate  them,  and 
shall  do  good  both  to  them  and  to  ourselves  in  the 
process.  The  religions  formulas  of  Europe  can  no 
more  be  established  upon  the  soil  of  this  country 
than  could  the  structure  of  one  of  its  mediaeval  des 
potisms  be  transported  hither  and  maintained  among 
us.  Facts  forbid  such  a  belief ;  reason,  forbids  it ; 
Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity,  all  three,  forbid  it. 

Let  them  come,  therefore  ;  there  is  room  for  them 
all,  and  we  need  them  all.  They  will  not  defile  or 
lower  us ;  we  shall  purify  and  elevate  them.  They 
come  into  a  purer  atmosphere,  upon  a  higher  plane  of 
life ;  their  necessary  and  unavoidable  movement  will 
be  upward.  Even  Mormonism,  which  occupies  one 
of  the  outlying  suburbs  of  the  Valley  of  the  Miss 
issippi — Mormonism,  one  of  the  greatest  if  not  the 
most  important  fact  of  our  age  and  country — dark, 
debasing  and  fearful  as  its  politics  and  morality  may 
be — I  believe  to  be  a  real  step  in  advance  for  most  of 
those  who  remove  to  its  desert  home.  And  it  seems 
to  me  that  few  will  fail  to  reach  the  same  conclusion, 
who  shall  carefully  consider  whence  these  people 
come,  what  their  characteristics  and  qualities  are,  what 
the  new  circumstances  are  in  which  they  find  them 
selves  placed,  and  the  fact  that  for  the  first  time  in 


456  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS   AND   PEOPLE 

their  history  or  that  of  their  ancestors,  they  are  here 
brought  into  approximately  true,  healthy  and  legi 
timate  relations  with  the  earth  and  labor.  For  God's 
great  earthly  instrument  for  elevating  man  in  the 
scale  of  social  being  is  labor.  Men  must  set  out 
from  earth,  to  reach  heaven.  He  is  the  true  son  of 
Earth — the  true  Antseus ;  he  gains  new  and  ever 
greater  strength  by  being  dashed  into  rude  forcible 
contact  with  her  rugged  bosom,  and  every  rebound 
carries  him  further  upward.  And  these  Mormons, 
however  isolated  from  our  institutions,  from  the  aids 
of  our  social,  intellectual,  religious  influences,  are  at 
least  starting  from  the  right  point.  They  are  with 
few  exceptions  an  industrious  and  even  laborious  peo 
ple,  frugal  and  honest  and  honorable  within  the 
important  range  of  the  minor  practical  ethics.  Now 
God  leaves  none  of  his  children  alone ;  and  thus  we 
are  in  duty  bound  to  hope  and  believe  that  in  pro 
cess  of  time  old  mother  Earth,  and  their  labor  and 
industry  and  economy  in  dealing  with  her,  will  little 
by  little  lift  them  upward  until  at  last  they  will 
come  to  the  full  and  perfect  stature  of  American 
Christian  citizens.  Therefore  it  is  that  I  have  not  the 
least  objection  to  have  hundreds,  thousands,  and 
tens  of  thousands,  nocking  to  the  Great  Salt  Lake. 
Through  whatever  ill-favored  or  perilous  phases,  the 
movement  must  and  will  result  in  good. 

Of  all  the  various  races  whose  blood  mingles  in  the 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  457 

Great  Valley,  or  whose  members  inhabit  it,  one  only 
remains  hopelesly  untamed,  untamable,  savage.  The 
Indian  alone  defies  the  operation  of  the  great  princi- 
ciple  of  interfusion  of  bloods.  Amidst  the  countless 
thousands  of  whites,  or  rather,  just  before  their 
advancing  line,  he  remains  an  isolated,  solitary  being. 
He  stalks  across  the  stage  of  thought  or  of  history 
alone.  "  Indian  file,"  we  say ;  and  it  is  singly,  as  we 
thus  describe  single  physical  movements,  that  we  ever 
think  of  him,  either  in  journeying,  in  character,  or 
action.  The  Indian  can  never  be  civilized.  He  has 
not  the  faculties  by  which  civilization  lays  hold  upon 
a  man  to  modify  and  to  cultivate  him.  For  we  im 
prove,  through  persistent  patient  labor,  and  through 
the  affections.  Were  it  not  for  the  power  and  the 
habit  of  constant  industry,  were  it  not  for  the  sweet 
fetters  of  love  and  duty  to  parents,  family,  children, 
friends,  what  would  make  you  and  me  stronger  or 
wiser,  or  better,  or  more  useful — if  we  are  so — from 
year  to  year?  Scarcely  would  the  united  strength  of 
religious  obligation  and  of  self-love  avail  to  accom 
plish  it  without  these  balancing  encircling  forces. 
These  supply  us  with  the  quiet  incessant  stimulus 
which  holds  us  steadily,  though  with  unperceived 
strength,  to  our  destined  line  of  labor.  But  these 
the  solitary  Indian  scarcely  feels  at  all ;  and,  there 
fore,  the  Indian  must  perish.  "We  cannot  absorb  him, 
cannot  render  him  an  integral  part  of  our  own 
20 


4:58  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

society.  We  drive  him  further  westward,  fight  him, 
murder  him  with  whisky.  Ou?  missionaries  labor 
amongst  his  decreasing  bands  with  praiseworthy  per 
severance,  but  with  an  utterly  hopeless  prospect. 
God's  law  is  against  him.  He  cannot  enter  into  our 
laborious  civilization,  he  cannot  live  amongst  it ;  and 
he  must  needs  disappear. 

I  need  scarcely  refer  to  the  outlandish  barbarism 
and  self-sufficient  brutality  of  the  strange  incursion 
of  Chinamen  into  California.  That  distant  State  is 
no  part  nor  outgrowth  of  the  Valley  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  except  in  a  very  indirect  and  distant  sense ;  and 
if  it  were  otherwise  I  could  only  say  that  perhaps 
this  Chinese  race  has  the  least  good  and  the  most 
evil  in  it  of  any  which  might  endeavor  to  unite  with 
our  own.  But  it  is  entirely  improbable,  and  scarce 
possible  that  such  a  union  should  happen,  in  any  mea 
sure  whatever. 

In  thus  recapitulating  the  admixture  of  races  in  the 
West,  I  must  not  omit  to  refer  to  the  mingling  of  the 
eastern  and  southern  Anglo-Americans  with  each 
other  there,  and  with  those  of  the  northern  half  of 
the  West.  A  quarter,  almost,  of  the  whole  popula 
tion  of  New  England,  has  been  drained  out  of  it  into 
new  settlements.  Her  sons  and  daughters  are  ever 
moving  westward,  insomuch  that  whole  villages  may 
be  found  left  with  a  strange  over-proportion  of  elderly 
people  in  them.  Over  the  mountains  they  go, 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  459 

teaching  or  trading,  farming  or  preaching.  The 
young  maidens  intermarry  with  the  southerners  or 
westerners,  and  the  young  men  take  to  themselves 
wives  of  the  daughters  of  the  land.  And  thus 
are  fused  together  the  comparatively  stiff  and  formal, 
though  strong,  practical,  straightforward,  acute  and 
resolute  qualities  of  the  New  Englander,  with  the 
fiery,  impulsive  generosity,  the  passionate  fervor,  the 
indolence,  the  semi-tropical  ease,  of  the  far  South, 
or  the  broad,  strong,  open,  hearty  geniality,  some 
times  coarse,  but  always  kind,  of  the  more  northern 
part  of  the  West. 

To  speculate  on  future  numerical  totals  would  be 
lost  time.  There  is  no  arithmetic  of  the  future.  Let 
us  glance  at  data  of  a  sort  from  which  we  can  reason 
forward.  Observe  the  material  and  physiological 
conditions  for  an  improvable  race,  which  are  possessed 
by  the  people  of  the  Yalley. 

A  territory  all  but  boundless ;  a  climate  and  a  soil 
exuberant  beyond  all  measure,  in  geniality  and  rich 
ness  ;  a  means  of  internal  communication  unprece 
dented  and  unequalled  in  human  history ;  resources 
for  material  wealth  utterly  incalculable  ;  a  freedom 
almost  ideal,  of  thought,  expression  and  action ;  a 
predominant  hereditary  blood  the  best  in  the  world  ; 
a  national  training  adapted  to  develop  all  the  strong 
est  and  best  powers  of  humanity ;  a  gradual  afflux  of 
other  races,  so  ordered  and  adjusted  that  the  genial 


460  PIONEERS,    PREACHERS    AND    PEOPLE 

cheerfulness  of  one,  the  stern  morality  and  strength 
of  principle  and  shrewd  practical  energy  of  another, 
the  gaiety  and  tireless  industry  of  another,  the  lofty 
honor  and  daring  bravery  of  another,  shall  all  mingle 
together  in  the  formation  of  one  vast  homogeneous 
race,  a  compound  of  many  various  human  qualities — 
and  thus  form  the  truest  representative  man  on 
earth.  Look,  lastly,  at  the  various  instrumentalities 
and  institutions  which  human  experience  has  elabo 
rated  or  Divine  wisdom  has  ordained,  as  best  for 
communicating  and  increasing  and  diffusing  know 
ledge,  and  goodness,  and  culture.  Observe  all  this, 
and  then  say  whether  the  nation  of  the  great  valley 
is  not  destined — so  far  as  human  foresight  can  deter 
mine — to  become  a  controlling  force  in  our  own  great 
commonwealth,  a  wise,  and  just,  and  strong,  and 
good  community,  happy  at  home,  honored  by  all, 
sanctified  and  blessed  by  God — the  foremost  and  high 
est  among  the  sons  of  men,  the  latest,  noblest  expo 
sition  of  the  magnificent  symmetry  and  beauty  and 
strength  of  a  rightly  cultured  humanity  ? 

No  doubt  the  careful  searcher  may  discern  faults 
in  the  western  character ;  eccentricity,  extravagance, 
materialism,  recklessness,  insubordination.  But 
these  errors  may  be  shown  to  be  the  necessary  logical 
conclusions  of  the  long  series  of  actual  premises  ;  of 
the  wild  and  dangerous  training  of  this  people, 
received  while,  as  a  people,  yet  in  their  early  youth. 


OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  4:61 

They  are  faults  very  like  those  of  a  great,  overgrown 
boy ;  a  creature  often  awkward,  uncomfortable,  even 
ridiculous,  but  who  will  speedily  spread  and  harden 
into  a  stately  and  powerful  man  ;  faults  of  strongly 
growing  and  vigorous  youth,  such  as  will  often,  by  a 
singularly  small  modification,  become  the  main  vir 
tues  of  manhood.  They  need  not  discourage  the 
admirer  of  the  western  character,  any  more  than 
should  the  dust  of  the  race-course  on  the  garment  of 
the  victor  distress  his  congratulating  friends.  It  is 
not  on  this  earth,  it  is  true,  that  anything  can  be  per 
fect,  or  can  escape  the  small  objections  of  the  dilet 
tante  traveller,  or  come  up  to  the  rigid  unpractical 
standard  of  that  peculiarly  ignorant  man  the  theo 
retical  moralist.  Nor  can  the  Great  Yalley  nor  its 
people.  But  when  the  circumstances  are  considered 
which  have  attended  the  growth  of  that  people,  and 
the  results  which,  it  has  achieved  within  these  few 
years,  the  philanthropist,  the  statesman,  the  patriot 
will  find  very  much  greater  cause  to  rejoice  and  be 
glad,  than  to  lament  and  to  fear. 

So  far  as  human  foresight  can  discern,  a  future  of 
marvellous  grandeur  and  power  awaits  the  Nation  of 
the  Yalley.  Its  thronging,  busy  millions,  masters  of 
a  wealth  beyond  counting,  a  nation  well  and  wisely 
trained,  pouring  abroad,  over  all  the  world,  by  many 
channels,  fabulous  masses  of  rich  products,  and 
gathering  in  the  various  wealth  of  all  the  world  in 


462  PIONEERS,    PKEACHKES    AND   PEOPLE 

return,  may  well  look  forward  to  the  day  when  they 
shall  rule  the  destinies  of  all  the  nation — nay,  it  may 
be,  of  all  the  continent.  And  while  it  is  thus  the 
seat  of  a  vast  political  dominion,  it  may  likewise, 
with  no  less  reason,  aspire  to  stand  among  the  nations, 
a  beautiful  and  noble  monument  of  richly-cultured 
intellect — of  strong,  deep  love — of  true  and  lovely 
Christian  goodness.  It  may  justly  and  hopefully 
aspire  to  become  the  first,  loftiest,  grandest  example 
in  all  the  long  panorama  of  human  history,  of  that 
grand  and  shapely  thing  which  God  wrould  have 
every  nation  become:  a  fabric  of  beauty,  strength 
and  grace,  far  beyond  any  of  the  fanciful  Utopias  of 
philosophic  schemers,  or  heathen  or  unchristian  legis 
lators  ;  in  truth  and  soberness,  the  crown  and  glory 
of  the  whole  earth. 

What  dispensations  the  mysterious  Governor  of 
nations  may  have  reserved  for  it,  wre  know  not. 
We  must  wait  for,  and  submit  to  the  decrees  of 
God;  even  should  he  have  determined  that  the 
whole  vast  Valley,  like  that  dimly-fabled  island 
of  Atlantis,  of  which  ancient  geographers  seem  to 
speak,  shall  sink  suddenly  away,  and  give  place  to 
the  dreary,  barren  fields  of  the  ocean.  Of  this  we 
know  not ;  of  such  things  we  cannot  reason.  There 
seems  to  be  but  one  single  event  whose  form  we  can 
imagine  to  see  within  the  dim  shadows  of  the  com 
ing  years;  but  one  single  occurrence  of  which  we 


OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  463 

may  speak  in  anticipation,  and  to  which  we  need  to 
look  with  any  fears,  either  for  its  own  ugly  linea 
ments,  or  the  baleful  blight  which  it  may  possibly  be 
fated  to  cast  over  the  future  fortunes  of  the  multitudes 
in  the  Yalley. 

This  is  that  hateful  thing,  whose  name  is  to-day 
unfilially  and  impiously  heard  ever  and  anon,  mut 
tered  in  secret  treason,  or  howled  in  the  frenzy  of 
public  treason,  by  fools  or  traitors,  North  and  South 
— the  vile  name  of  disunion.  Let  this  Union  be  dis 
solved,  and  farewell  to  all  those  fair  dreams  which 
my  feeble  words  have  so  imperfectly  and  briefly 
striven  to  paint.  If  the  Union  is  dissolved,  no  human 
power  will  ever  reconstruct  it;  farewell  to  these 
United  States,  and,  with  them,  to  our  grand  pos 
sessions  of  patriotic  memories;  to  the  hard-fought 
Revolution ;  to  the  wise  counsels  of  Washington  ;  the 
inspiring  oratory  of  so  many  heaven-gifted  speakers ; 
to  the  warlike  fame  of  so  many  glorious  soldiers ;  to 
the  undying  wisdom  of  Jefferson  and  of  Hamilton, 
and  so  many  more  statesmen  and  legislators ;  to  all 
the  historic  treasures  of  the  nation.  For,  I  pray  you, 
which  of  the  mobs  of  little,  feeble,  squabbling  States 
— "  Sovereign  States,"  forsooth  ! — would  own  them 
all  ?  Or  by  what  rule  should  a  dividend  of  them  be 
made  ?  or  what  distribution  would  be  consented  to  ? 

Is  it  indeed  true  that  our  nation  cannot  last  one 
century  ?  Is  our  cohesive  power  already  destroyed  ? 


4:64:  PIONEERS,    PKEACHEB8   AND   PEOPLE 

Are  we  already  rotten?  Are  our  forbearance,  our 
kindness,  our  brotherly  love,  so  soon  exhausted  ? 
Have  we  so  quickly  squandered  our  inheritance  of 
traditions,  of  common  blood,  of  common  suffering 
and  labor,  of  common  interest,  of  common  glory  and 
prosperity,  and  must  we  so  soon  be  scattered  into  a 
contemptible  chaos  of  amorphous,  disintegrated, 
strengthless,  political  atoms  ? 

I  cannot  believe  it.  I  have  heard — I  still  hear — 
all  the  miserable  outcries  of  the  villain  horde  that 
would  do  this  devil's  work.  I  have  not  patience, 
nor  is  it  necessary  to  recite  them  here.  But  I  still 
have  faith  unshaken  in  the  trustworthiness  of  the 
American  people — in  their  ability,  with  God's  help, 
to  govern  themselves.  I  still  believe  that  they  see 
and  feel  the  unimaginable  grandeur  and  beauty  of 
the  great  and  holy  office  which  God  has  set  them  to 
fill — the  office  of  demonstrating  the  excellency  of 
intelligent  and  sanctified  freedom  in  a  nation ;  that 
they  recognize  and  contemn  the  paltry  selfishness  of 
the  dogs  that  yelp  against  the  fair  edifice  of  our 
republic ;  and  that  they  will  speedily  send  them 
howling  to  their  dens,  or  disappointed  to  their 
graves. 

There  may  be  many  perils  along  our  path — much 
suffering  in  store  for  us.  Perhaps  the  seal  must  be 
dipped  in  blood  that  is  still  to  be  set  to  the  record  of 
our  final  and  assured  prosperity  as  a  nation.  But 


OF   THE   MISSISSIPPI.  465 

even  though  it  be  thus,  shall  we  for  that  turn  shame 
fully  back  from  the  great  work  that  is  set  before  us 
to  do  ?  Shall  we  ignobly  refuse  to  do  the  office  to 
which  God  has  set  us  apart,  in  the  sight  of  all  the 
world  ?  I  say,  no.  I  am  yet  to  be  forced  to  believe 
that  our  people  are  so  fallen  backward  toward  a  dark 
barbarism  as  to  acquiesce  in  such  an  abject  abnega 
tion  ;  and  I  am  yet  to  be  forced  to  believe  that  the  God 
of  our  fathers  has  so  utterly  rejected  us  that  in  his  hot 
anger  he  will  thus  cast  us  out  and  leave  us  a  jest  and 
a  scoff  among  the  crowned  tyrants  of  the  earth.  I 
believe  better  things.  I  believe  that  he  will  still 
lead  us,  as  he  has  thus  far  led  us,  along  the  path 
toward  the  glorious  object  of  our  natural  life ;  I 
believe  that  better  days  will  come ;  and  that  in  the 
sunshine  of  prosperity,  and  our  good  God  still  leading 
us,  we  shall  in  future  years  rise  still  higher  and 
more  gloriously  in  the  scale  of  being ;  that  the  voice 
of  our  glory  and  our  rejoicing  shall,  in  louder  and 
still  louder  tones,  announce  its  wondrous  lesson  to 
the  nations,  proclaiming  liberty  throughout  all  the 
land,  even  unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof. 


THE   END. 


A  most  interesting  "Work. 


THE  RIFLE,  AXE,  AND  SADDLE-BAGS, 

A  VOLUME  OF  LECTURES 
BY    REV.    WILLIAM:    HEISTRY    ^LLIjTBTJttN. 

One  neat  volume,  12mo.    Pries  81  00. 

CONTENTS   (IN   PART). 

THE  SYMBOLS  OF  EARLY  WESTERN  CHARACTER. 
The  Untamed  Wilderness — Daniel  Boone — The  Female  Captive — The 
Mysterious  Shot — A  Narrow  Escape — A  Backwoods  Marriage — Wedding 
Dinner  and  Dance — Homes  in  the  Wilderness — Justice  in  the  Backwoods 
Preachers  in  the  Wilderness — The  Preacher's  Dormitory — Henry  Beidel- 
man  Bascom — "  Old  Jimmy's  "  Reproofs — The  Pioneer's  Work. 

THE  TRIUMPHS  OF  GENIUS  OVER  BLINDNESS. 
Beauty  and  Effects  of  Light — Eminent  Blind  Men — Remarkable  Sense 
of  Hearing — John  Milton — Premonitions  of  Blindness — Blindness  an  Im 
pediment  to  Oratory — Sympathy  Necessary  to  the  Speaker — The  other 
Senses  Quickened — The  Blind  Man's  Need  is  his  Gain — "  I  am  Old  and 
Blind." 

AN  HOUR'S  TALK  ABOUT  WOMAN. 

The  Moral  Greater  than  the  Intellectual — John  Howard  the  Philanthro 
pist — Ancient  and  Modern  Women — Frivolity  a  Prevailing  Evil — Earnest 
ness  of  Female  Authors — Women  the  Best  Literary  Instructors — Woman's 
Responsibility — The  Power  of  Sympathy — The  Importance  of  Conversa 
tion — Woman  the  True  Reformer. 

EARLY  DISCOVERIES  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. 
Exploration  of  the  Mississippi— Gold  Unsuccessfully  Sought— Collisions 
with  the  Indians — Attack  upon  the  Chickasaws — Historical  Traditions — 
Incidents  of  Forest  Life — Dispersion  of  the  Settlers     Anglo-Saxon  Su 
premacy. 

Address, 

DERBY  &  JACKSON,  PUBLISHERS, 

]  19  NASSAU  STREET,  N.  T. 


gbrbg  &  |acksc«'s  |]«blkanons. 


1  To  the  list  of  John  Milton  and  other  'blind  men  eloquent,'  must  be  added  tl*  name  of 
JJUY  MILBUKN." — London  Athenaeum. 


AH  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  DEE?  INTEREST ! 

For  Sale  ly  Booltselkrs,  Preachers,  Colporteurs,  and  Book  Agent  i 
generally. 

TEN  YEARS    OF   PREACHER   LIFE; 

OR,  CHAPTERS  FROM  AN  AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
BY     WILLIAM     HEN-RY     M I  L  B  TJ IR  IN 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  RIFLE    AXE,   AND  SADDLE-BAGS. " 

One  neat  12mo.  volume.    Price,  One  Dollar. 

"  There  was  a  time  when  meadow,  prove  and  stream, 
The  earth,  and  every  common  sight, 

To  me  did  seem 
Apparelled  in  celestial  light, 
The  glory  and  the  freshness  of  a  dream." 


LIST  OP  THE    CONTENTS    (IN   PART). 


Early  Reminiscence.    The  Accident. 

The  Sick  Chamber.    Surgical  Consult  ation. 

Two  Years'  Imprisonment. 

Land  of  the  Setting  Sun. 

"  There  were  Giants  in  those  days." 

The  Backwoods  Preacher. 

The  Saddle-bags  taken  up. 

Let  no  Man  Despise  thy  Youth. 

A  Western  Wedding. 

A  Western  Carnp-Meeting. 

An  Exhorter  in  a  Dilemma. 

Liberality  of  Methodists. 

The  Last  Scene  of  Conference. 

Walking  the  Hospital. 

Cry  Aloud  and  Spare  not.    A  Sermon  on 

Deck. 

Its  unexpected  Rewards. 
Heavy  Purse  and  Congressional  Chaplain. 
Necessities  for  Extempore  Speaking. 
A  Stump  Speech  Described. 
Value  of  the  Eye  in  an  Orator. 
Congress  and  two  of  its  Young  Men. 
Congressional  Eloquence. 
Stephen  A.  Douglas. 
Alexander  H.  Stephens. 
Entering  the  Senate  Chamber. 
Memories  of  the  Great  Departed. 
Author's  First  Prayer  in  Congress. 


Henry  Clay.  John  C.  Calhoun.  Daniel 
Webster. 

Social  Life  in  Washington. 

Attractions  of  the  Capital. 

Power  of  Memory.    Influence  of  Women. 

A  Death-bed  Summons.  Marriage  of  the 
Author. 

Chicago  in  1S41, 1846,  and  1855. 

A  Night  Ride  in  a  Deluge.    Narrow  Escape. 

The  Dying  Preacher. 

Grace  in  "  Spots."    Life  on  Wheels. 

Life  on  the  Mississippi.    A  Boat  Race. 

Passengers  excited.    S.  S.  Prentiss. 

Phelps  the  Desperado.     Riding  the  Circuit. 

Sojourn  in  New  Orleans. 

Alabama  Scenery.    A  Southern  nome. 

Tribute  to  the  South. 

Author  Charged  with  Heresy. 

Stage  Coach  Dialogue.  A  Fearful  Spectacle, 

Strange  Superstition.  The  Anxious  Mo 
ment. 

Homage  to  Ladies.    Southern  Hospitality 

Southern  Matron.     Southern  Literature. 

Old  Friends  and  Pleasant  Faces. 

The  Pioneer  Preacher.    Western  Cookery. 

A  Night  Scene  in  a  Village  Store. 

Indisposition  of  the  Author. 

Returns  to  New  York.    The  Infant's  Cry. 


V  The  above  will  be  sent  by  mail,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price 

DERBY  &  JACKSON",  PUBLISHERS,  J/y 

119  NASSAU  ST.,  KEW  YORK, 

> 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


51973 


REaCIR.NOV  30  77 


LD21A-20m-3,'73 
(Q8677slO)476-A-3l 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


